SIS Senior Honored for Academic Achievements After Finding Interest in UX Design
As a graduate of Bearden High School, Sarah Yeow knew she wanted to go to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, but she wasn’t sure exactly what she wanted to study. Now, as a graduating senior from the School of Information Sciences, Yeow has a better understanding of what she wants to do in the career field.
“When it was time to decide on colleges, obviously UT was a really good choice, and financially it made a lot of sense as well. It just looked like a lot of fun and I had a lot of friends that were going or had already started going,” she said.
Yeow took several web design classes in high school and enjoyed the discipline. When she applied to UT and got in, she chose to study computer science without knowing exactly what it entailed. However, the summer before coming to UT, Yeow was with a friend who was in the School of Information Sciences and told her she would really like the program. She decided to change her major right then and there.
Yeow is particularly interested in user experience (UX) design.
“I really like that this last semester we were able to actually get into the User eXperence (UX) Lab and use it for a project,” she explained.
Yeow hopes to take the knowledge she’s gained from the program and apply it to the real world through a job in web design or UX research.
During her time at UT, Yeow had the opportunity to study abroad in Siena, Italy.
“My freshman year I already knew I wanted to study abroad but they don’t really offer it for freshmen as much,” she explained. “So my sophomore year I started looking into it more and the Siena trip just matched up perfectly with my summer plans. It was three weeks. So it wasn’t like you’re gone the whole summer, but it was enough that you get immersed into living there. I think we went to nine different cities in Italy. We would just go on the weekends or after class. We went to Pisa after class one day and that was just an awesome experience. I don’t think I’ll ever have that again.”
Yeow will graduate in three and a half years thanks to AP classes and dual enrollment. She said some of her favorite classes in SIS were taught by professors Wade Bishop and Dania Bilal because they focus on redesigning websites.
“I really like those two classes and those professors really care about your progress,” She said. “They always are checking in on you and they’re always available after class or outside of class to help you.”
While taking classes, Yeow also had the opportunity to be a student assistant and instructional writer for the Office of Information Technologies. There, she used her UX-related skills to help faculty, staff, and other students.
Along with being a student assistant, Yeow has been involved with several student organizations including Christian Students at UTK and the Information Science Club.
Yeow was recently honored with a 2024 Volunteer of Distinction Award from the Office of the Provost, which is given to students who exhibit extraordinary academic achievement, and community engagement and hold the highest GPAs in their colleges.
Yeow says she’s excited to see what the future holds and is looking forward to the job search come this summer.