Jake Roble has achieved as impressive a record in extracurricular activities as he has in academics.
Although Jake is studying neurobiology in the L&S Honors program, his interests are broad: he has also published research in plant genetics and taken upper-level coursework in sociology. One of his professors noted that he “demonstrates an intellectual sophistication that I have rarely witnessed in undergraduates.” Another said that Jake conducts his scholarship with an eye toward solutions and inspires her to be a better scholar herself. She also praised his leadership abilities, his enthusiasm for serving the broader public good, and “his ability to turn a work environment into a community.”
In addition to carrying a heavy course load and working part time to support himself, Jake worked as a policy-analysis intern at the Morgridge Center for Public Service, where he learned that 30 percent of Pell Grant recipients within the UW System are food insecure. There were points during his own college career when he faced financial struggles and tried to navigate resources on and off campus for support.
This prompted Jake to initiate and lead a student effort to create a food and financial guide for students on campus. The University Health Service now distributes the guide to all incoming students, and it is available at the Morgridge Center and the McBurney Disability Resource Center. He is also working on an additional financial resource guide that he hopes to publish this fall.
Jake has been involved in supporting global health as well. After seeing Dr. Paul Farmer of Partners in Health speak on campus during his freshman year, Jake started a UW–Madison chapter of Partners in Health|Engage to support Farmer’s work. The group raised more than $15,000 over two years for programs supporting maternal and child health.
After hearing a chance comment from a fellow undergraduate about performing surgery while on a service trip abroad, Jake spearheaded an effort to create ethics guidelines for students who are involved in global-health service-learning trips outside of university programming. He worked with the Global Health Institute and the Center for Pre-Health Advising to draft the guidelines and a corresponding training program. He also proposed student-government legislation requiring all student-volunteer organizations that apply for university travel grants to participate in the ethics program. Several other universities are now interested in replicating the program.
Given that Jake has become an extraordinary leader on campus, it’s easy to see why one of his professors says that he is someone whom our campus will be honoring years from now as an extraordinary leader in society.