2025 Graduation at UW-Madison: Excellence in Spite of the Pandemic
Jeremyah Williams entered UW-Madison in the fall of 2020 when the COVID pandemic prevented universities from having in-person instruction and activities.
by Jonathan Gramling
Jeremyah Williams was born and raised in Madison. He attended Emerson Elementary School and Sherman Middle School, but then his mom got a job on the west side, they moved and he finished up at Jefferson Middle School and Vel Phillips Memorial High.
And along the way, Williams learned about the UW-Madison Information Technology Academy, ITA, applied and was accepted.
“ITA was like a pre-college program, very similar to PEOPLE,” Williams said. “They market it as college preparation. So when I started it, it was my freshman year in high school. They basically started teaching us Adobe products skills like Photoshop, After Effects. They also taught us photography, coding, digital organization. We had to write cover letters. There were all of these college preparation things plus digital technology skills that they thought would be useful and interesting to us.”
The best thing was that ITA made Williams eligible to become a PEOPLE Scholar if he were admitted to UW-Madison. He entered UW-Madison in the fall of 2020 as a computer science major during the beginning of the COVID pandemic. While Williams experienced online education during the last few months of his high school career at Memorial, it was strange to begin his collegiate career virtually.
“I definitely had a more interesting start to college because I started college during the pandemic,” Williams said. “So the way that PEOPLE was functioning for us and everyone else in my cohort, the Class of 2020, was a little bit different and they offered as much support for us as they could virtually as they were allowed to. We had an advisor that we could come and talk to. We were in this initial instruction class with a bunch of other PEOPLE Scholars to help us during this transition as well. It was all virtual, but it was a good way to meet all of the other PEOPLE Scholars because we didn’t really get to meet anyone else during the time. And then obviously after some amount of time and once it went back to more in-person stuff, it became more regular.”
The pandemic also stinted his life as a college student, since the university basically came to a standstill physically.
“I got a little taste of collegiate life,” Williams said. “I’m glad that they allowed us to be in the dorms. I was in Witte, which was in more of essential location to campus. My dorm as well as the dorm that was really close to us had some restrictions. Initially there was a transition period for the freshmen between coming to college and trying to get acclimated to being in the dorms, but also scheduling your classes online, which was a little bit of a struggle. I think after a while, it became a lot easier.”
But college life wasn’t the same.
“Given that there wasn’t a whole lot of opportunity to meet people initially, I think I definitely struggled find my community, especially that first year when I couldn’t go anywhere and I was stuck in my dorm,” Williams said. “There weren’t a whole lot of opportunities to meet other people except people on my floor and even then, we were a little worried about being in the same room and not being six feet apart. I think that was probably my biggest struggle initially. But then obviously over time, I was able to do clubs and meet more people and talk to more people in my classes and form friendships.”
Williams eventually became involved in the Black Student Union and some other groups. But what took up a lot of his free time was the Student Leadership Group.
“I ended up becoming a coordinator for that program as well where I was able to get paid for my work because it was funded through the Associated Students of Madison, the student government,” Williams said. “That’s probably where I made a lot of my closer friends because I was in that club for so long. I know I did Badger Volunteers for about a year, two different volunteering programs. That was really fun.”
While the Student Leadership Group held different activities throughout the school year, it had one signature event.
“We would put on whole campus workshops,” Williams said. “There is a conference called The All Campus Leadership Conference that happens once per year. That’s where we get a bunch of sponsors from the local Madison area. We get a bunch of different speakers to come out and give talks to anyone who signs up. It’s free and open to anyone on campus.”
And Williams also got support from the PEOPLE Program.
“We could go to the PEOPLE office at various times,” Williams said. “I ended up getting a new advisor whom I met with more regularly. They put on some events from time to time. And there was always the PEOPLE Level-Up Conference that happened once per year. I just think that they offered up as much support as they could. The way I found out my information was from their weekly or sometimes biweekly emails called PEOPLE Parcels. They would give out a bunch of information that they thought students should know. I found that very helpful throughout my college career. Sometimes I would utilize it. Sometimes it was just nice information to know.”
While at UW-Madison, Williams determined that while his technology skills were invaluable, he didn’t want them to be the focus of his education.
“I eventually ended up switching to sociology, but still having a slight focus on research and analysis,” Williams said. “I think it still prepared me pretty well. My research is more focused on statistics. I use more statistical stuff like data and SDSS whereas in ITA, we learned more like hard coding like Python and Java, HTML and stuff like that."
Williams wishes he would have used PEOPLE’s resources more.
“I think another struggle that happened more when I got to higher level classes I think was just the difficulty of those classes and me having to ask for help more often,” Williams said. “I didn’t utilize office hours as much as I should have in my first two years. But I think as I became a junior and a senior, I definitely realized the necessity that some of these higher level courses required to continually meet if you don’t understand something and get the help when you need it.”
One of Williams’ fondest memories is UW football.
“I don’t go to too many football games,” Williams said. “But the ones that I did go to in the student section were really fun and I got to Jump Around and just have a really good time at the game.”
With his degree in sociology in hand, Williams will be taking a gap year before continuing his education to earn his Ph.D. in sociology. During the gap year, he will use his tech skills to earn a living in the data science field.
And what would he love to do eventually? Make an impact through the U.S. Census Bureau.
“It would be really fun,” Williams exclaimed. “I think it’s the highest level of sociological, social science research that is done in this country. It works with the biggest population that is here in this country, given that this census happens every 10 years and everyone is required to fill it out. Just analyzing that data and using it to help people in some way is why I would want to work there.”
Williams’ piece of advice for first-year UW-Madison students would be to take full advantage of campus life.
“I would say that something that I wish I would have done that I wasn’t able to do — largely because of the pandemic — is try to do a lot outside of school, outside of your classes,” Williams said. “Try to enjoy a club that you are interested in. Maybe go to an event that you are interested in. Try and meet new people as soon as you get there. I think the later you get in your college career, the more that school takes over and it gets hard to try to form those connections. I think it would be easier when you are first starting out.”
Williams is appreciative of the education he received at UW-Madison. As our interview ended, he exclaimed, “On Wisconsin!” Williams is another Badger prepared to make his mark on America and the world.