Hi, I'm Dr. Hoby Wedler.
I graduated with my undergraduate
degrees from UC Davis
in 2011.
And if my white cane didn't give it
away, I was born completely blind.
I am now thrilled to tell
you how UC Davis
had such a positive influence
and made such a difference on
me as a person, my career
and my life in general.
I was born in beautiful Petaluma,
California, a town about 70
miles west of Davis.
I have amazing parents.
They always kept very
high expectations of us and
expected us to have high
expectations of them.
They also taught us to take
responsibility for our lives
and our actions.
My brother is sighted and
two years older than me.
He graduated high school with honors
and attended college at Berkeley.
He paved the way for me, so of
course, I wanted to do well in high
school and attend college.
I studied hard in high school
and ended up getting accepted to
both UC Davis and UC
Berkeley.
And like a lot of us, I let it go
until 11:30 p.m.
on April 30.
You know, decision day is May 1,
and I had to decide between Davis
and Berkeley.
Do I go to Berkeley where my brother
was at school and join him?
Or do I go to Davis, a cool college
town where I can define my own path?
I chose Davis, and I am so
glad I did.
Moving away to college is hard for
anyone, but being blind
brings its own set of challenges.
How was I going to get from my dorm
to the bus stop?
How was I going to navigate the
dining commons?
I was very lucky that my parents
taught me at a young age
how to live independently.
And on through my senior year of
high school, I gained the skills
necessary to come out to Davis and
live independently away from
home.
UC Davis has an incredible
Student Disability Center
who provides support and
accommodations for students with all
kinds of disabilities.
They provided me with all the
wonderful support I would need to
excel at Davis.
I majored in chemistry as an
undergraduate student here.
When you hear "chemistry," you might
think it's a very visual science,
but with the amazing support of all
of the chemistry faculty, staff
and my fellow peers, we
were able to make chemistry very
accessible to me.
And I showed staff and faculty
how they could work with me
collaboratively.
I learned from them and they learned
from me.
I also got a degree in United States
history, and because I'm a nerd,
I got a minor in mathematics, as
well.
So I interacted with many different
departments and many different
faculty and staff.
And I have to say, every single
person I worked with was so
incredibly supportive.
I love the Davis community so
much that I stayed on
as a graduate student and earned my
Ph.D. in computational organic
chemistry from the amazing professor
Dean Tantillo in 2016.
After earning my Ph.D.,
I took my love for food,
wine and everything sensory
and started my own company on
my entrepreneurial journey to being
a sensory and flavor consultant
all across the food and beverage
industry. I now have my own line
of spices, Hoby's Essentials,
and I'm working on several other
brands in the alcoholic beverage
industry.
Without the support of faculty,
staff, my peers
and beyond at UC Davis,
I wouldn't have been able to do
this.
I chose UC Davis and trusted
the Davis community for my
university education, and
that, my dear friends, has
been a springboard for my successful
career.