Ian Wilder

Ian is a resilient young man who has found strategies to cope with life’s challenges. He describes his earlier fear of public speaking, and how as he reached the podium it was “like I had been swept under a wave.” He gives credit for overcoming this fear to a mentor who advised him to face it head on and practice, advice he followed diligently and which allowed him to confidently give his Valedictorian address.

He also likes to solve problems, and describes how close he is to his older brother, and how difficult it was to move away. They had bonded over video games, but finding an easy way to continue to play online wasn’t easy. Ian persisted, and explains how “the hours spent in the router and network settings finally paid dividends when I got the message: “Armed Bandit has joined the server.”

Ian has earned several scholarships that have made attending UC San Diego possible: the UC San Diego Faculty-Staff Employee Dependent Scholarship, the Richard L. and Fern W. Erion and Laidlaw-Erion Scholarship, and the William F. Rogers Jr. Scholarship for students majoring in Social Sciences. He also relies on his job as the STEM coordinator with the Boys and Girls Club.

He is active in the UCSD Intervarsity Christian Fellowship and in Campus Crusade for Christ, and served on a mission project to Costa Rica last year to provide education and clean water. At North Coast Church he plays the piano or keyboard and participates in multiple service projects.

Even though the last few years have been difficult, Ian refuses to engage in self-pity. Shortly after moving to California in 2018 his father committed suicide. He describes the days and months that followed as having the goal of “making it through one hour and one day at a time.” He sought counseling to help with the trauma and believes it was key in helping him to carry on.

Ian is enrolled in Earl Warren College. His career goal is to “become a counselor serving those with mental illness, family, and life issues,” and “to give back to society as my counselor did for me.”