For Shawn Tsosie, completing a Doctorate Degree in Mathematics was a lifelong dream. Now, after graduating with a Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Cruz in September, he has seen that dream fulfilled.

Tsosie first developed an interest in math in Harlem, Montana, where he attended elementary, middle and high school. In 1998, while in high school, he applied for a summer program at Stanford University, where he studied complex analysis. He met people with Doctorate Degrees in math for the first time at this camp, inspiring him to pursue an advanced degree of his own.

After graduating high school, Tsosie began studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but he struggled with the intense workload and difficult classes, leaving after three years.

Soon after he enlisted in the United States Army as an airborne infantryman in 2003. He was an outstanding soldier, earning several medals for his service over two deployments to Iraq. During this time he also came to realize that his true passion was still math. In his spare time he worked through an analysis, algebra and linear book.

After serving Honorably for five years, Tsosie decided to return to school, redoubling his efforts in pursuit of a Ph.D. in math. He enrolled at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and worked as an undergraduate researcher at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute.

Shortly after he was admitted to MIT, where he excelled in math classes, won two writing awards, interned during the summers and completed his Bachelor's Degree in Mathematics in 2012.

Tsosie earned his Ph.D. in mathematics with a focus on Algebraic Number Theory at the University of Santa Cruz, California. There while studying on a fellowship, he found a community of supportive, passionate people who shared his enthusiasm for math. He also met his future wife, to whom he has been married for three years. Upon his graduation in September 2018, the couple relocated to San Francisco, California, where Tsosie is beginning his career as a machine learning engineer.

Tsosie is grateful to his family members for their unfailing support during his long journey, including his mother Andrea Quintana and his sisters, Talia Bell and Roberta Quintana of Harlem, his brother Jay Tsosie of Missoula Montana; his grandparents Chuck and Iona Schilling of Harlem; His wife, Claire Tsosi, of San Francisco and all of his Aunts, Uncles and Cousins