When you ask her where she grew up, Katie finds it a little difficult to respond. She graduated from high school in Coppell, Texas, outside of Dallas, but spent two transformational middle school years living in North Sumatra, Indonesia. During her time there she learned a great deal, but above all, that the world is a big place! When searching for a college, she was looking for that same sense of space to explore, academically and personally.
Katie came to Rhodes from Dallas ready for another adventure, but wasn’t expecting the one she found in her Economics 101 class. “It was completely different from anything I’d ever seen before. Professor McMahon taught economics as the study of people making decisions,” she says. “I fell in love with it!” She went on to complete a bridge major in Economics and International Studies. On the way, Katie’s academic adventures included her research on the Tennessee Education Lottery Scholarship as a Regional Studies fellow and a semester studying American foreign policy while interning on the campus of the Foreign Service Institute in Washington, D.C. Her senior seminar work on the Olympics allowed Katie to create a capstone experience that blended her interests in economic analysis and comparative politics. Of her research, she says: “My professors inspired, guided, and encouraged me, but ultimately, it was all my work. They taught me that I can do hard things, and that’s something I’ve taken with me.”
Now Katie’s journey with Rhodes College has come full circle. Since 2011, she has been the College’s representative for all of Texas and is based out of her home in Dallas. Although she lives in Texas, it is difficult for her to stay away from Memphis for too long, so don’t be surprised if you see her at Young Avenue Deli on a Friday night indulging her love of live music and good food.
