Students cherish externships at Seattle software engineering center
May 15, 2025 — Every spring break, students head out across the globe to job shadow Grinnell College alumni. Whether they’re starting to explore careers or already have an idea where they’d like to land post-graduation, the weeklong externship and home stay is usually eye-opening for Grinnellians.
That was certainly true this March when physics major Akram Safiyazov ’28, along with computer science major Alexa Hatcher ’27, traveled to Seattle to complete externships with their host, Anshul Tambay ’20, who works in software development and project management. It was Tambay’s second year hosting two Grinnell students.
Tambay, technical program manager with the University of Washington Scientific Software Engineering Center at the eScience Institute, was one of 89 alums who hosted 97 students over spring break.
Alexa Hatcher ’27, left, and Akram Safiyazov ’28, right, traveled to Seattle during spring break to complete an externships with Anshul Tambay ’20.
“The externship was an incredible introduction to the world of project management,” said Hatcher, who’s from Minneapolis. “It gave us the opportunity to see the needs of the scientists and the engineers on these projects, and to watch how Anshul ensured that everyone was happy with where the projects were going – and manage an achievable timeline and workflow.”
Tambay says the externships were terrifically rewarding from his vantage point as well. “It’s a good challenge for me to make sure life’s humming along well enough that I can insert two people into it without breaking stride,” he says.
Hatcher and Safiyazov stayed six nights in Seattle and went to work for four straight days, following a 9-5 schedule with Tambay.
“One of the most fulfilling realizations was that Anshul really likes his current job,” says Safiyazov, who hails from Kazakhstan. “He had passion for it and saw meaning in what he was doing. That fostered my own commitment to find a place where my motivation would be fueled not exclusively by my paycheck, but by the fulfillment it would bring to me and the net good to society that my job would produce.”
During their externships, Hatcher and Safiyazov took part in meetings and attended presentations at the eScience Institute.
The two students met with Anshul’s team and talked to them about their roles and journeys to the eScience Institute. They attended meetings as well as talks by post-docs from the eScience Institute.
“One of my supervisors invited Akram to a talk on cosmology, which kind of blew his mind,” Tambay said. “It was always a formative experience for me at Grinnell to wander into a talk, and things like that are constantly happening here. We have a graduate research scholars program, and some of them do capstone presentations, so Akram and Alexa got to see those.”
Tambay also made a point of sharing workplace skills such as communicating with co-workers, setting expectations, and relationship management. “These were insights I wish I had going into a professional environment,” he says. Tambay also shared insights into his job, which he says isn’t a typical one in his field.
“My job is a non-traditional pathway, and I think it’s important that the students have a breadth of exposure,” says Tambay, who was a math and economics major at Grinnell. “It’s a job that people who have tunnel vision toward big software companies wouldn’t always consider.”
Tambay arranged for the students to meet a group of Grinnellian software engineers for dinner at a Japanese restaurant in Seattle.
But it wasn’t all work and no play in Seattle. Tambay made sure the students got a Seattle CityPASS to explore the sites. He also took them to Seattle highlights like Gas Works Park and Green Lake, and met up for meals with other Grinnellians, including a group of software engineers at a Japanese restaurant.
Tambay also had the students stay at the Seattle house he shares with five other Grinnellians: Sarah Weltz ’21, Jasper Yang ’21, Ezekiel (Zeke) Miller ’21, Henry Cladouhos ’22, and Hope Nowak ’22.
“It was so much fun to be able to talk to Anshul and his housemates about their time in Grinnell and compare experiences,” Hatcher said. “I also found that seeing how people live their lives after college was very valuable.” For his part, Tambay wanted the students to experience the meal planning system, and observe how to respect, communicate, and live harmoniously with roommates.
The final evening was a celebration dinner prepared by Hatcher and Safiyazov for the house. It was Akram’s favorite Central Asian dish, plov, a rice pilaf-based meal considered the national dish of Uzbekistan. “We talked and laughed for hours about our food creations and the best Grinnell traditions,” says Hatcher.
“People were so open and supportive of me and Alexa, having known us just for a few hours or days. It’s very reminiscent of the experience you get daily in Grinnell,” Safiyazov says.
—by Anne Stein ’84