Earliest Years
I, Katie, was born August 30, 1978 in Texas. I attended Oak Hill Elementary School. I suppose, at Oak Hill, my mind was first shown ideas about life and the world, that influence me so much today. I attended
O'Henry Middle School, an experience I will be unlikely to forget. I attended Stephen F. Austin High.
At Austin High I played the Trombone, was an active Student Council Representative and Cabinet member, and had many great experiences. These three schools helped me learn to think and explore
my universe and also encouraged me to fight for my beliefs and ideas.

University
I attended the University of Texas at Austin, and I must say I learned more than I could have imagined in a fully Liberal and Arty set of courses. I am proud to be a Longhorn and I, like many others, bleed burnt orange. In May 2000, I graduated with a Government Major and Linguistics Minor.

Reading, I believe, is the single most important part of development as a human being. When I began to read at a very young age, a whole new world opened up for me. I met new people, saw new lands and explored new galaxies. All through books. Books have value and merit, give joy and fun.

Travel
Another defining part of me is my love of travel. I love the thrill of going new places and meeting new people. As a city dweller my whole life, I love to see the stars all over the world.

In 1996 I traveled to Cozumel, Mexico and I was amazed the first night when the sun went down. The numerous stars were the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. I have lived in a bright city for my whole life and the night of bright stars in Mexico, I will remember for the rest of my life. In my bright city the stars are few and dim, but the stars from Cozumel were brighter than any I have ever seen in my life. I would really recommend to anyone who lives in a city to take a few hours and drive to the country or travel somewhere less bright and enjoy the heavens and billions of stars. The stars were plentiful and called out to my soul, I may be a silly romantic, but at least I can say the passion will never leave me behind.

The summer between my Freshman and Sophomore years at UT (Summer 1997) I spent four weeks in Germany. Those four weeks were the most awesome in my whole life. I experienced new cultures and new places the like which I had never imagined. I now know I can function in other places, speak a language other than my own and be happy. I also for the first time ever, saw the stars from a plane. When I looked out the airplane window and saw these stars I truly felt as though I could reach out and touch them. I now know, that my dreams will always include the stars.

Alabama
Summer 1998, I spent almost three months at the United States Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama as a Space Camp Counselor. The programs at Space Camp are amazing. They had signs at the entrances which read "Through these doors enter America's future Astronauts." This is undeniably true. I worked with an amazing staff and met wonderful young people from all over the world.

It may seem strange to have Space Camp in Alabama, but Space Camp is near the Army's Redstone Arsenal, where many of the early space rockets were built and tested. Huntsville is an amazing place filled with history and tradition in manned space flight.

I hope many young people are able to attend Space Camp at their multiple locations (California, Florida and internationally) and become excited about the future of space exploration. To qoute the IMAX movie Hail Columbia, I believe "the dream is alive again!"

With the building of the International Space Station ongoing, I am very optimistic about the future of manned space travel. I hope that someday everyone will be able to visit an Outpost in Space. Even in light of the Columbia tragedy (1 Feb 2003), I believe that we must reach out towards the stars and never forget what all of humanity's spacefarers have given us.

In December 1998, I was able to return to space camp for two weeks. I remember discussion with the Camp trainees, about the Space Station and the future of the American Space Program. Young people have amazing ideas about how to get things done and imagine, surely their dreams will come true.

The summer of 1999 I went back to Alabama to work with Space Academy program. This is the middle school age program which has more developed mission simulations. My speciality was the Atlantis Space Shuttle Simulator. The best part was monitoring Mission Control with 6 bright young people as they worked their way through problems and the mission.

At the end of the Summer the International Space Camp program brought to Alabama teachers and students from all over the world. These teachers were amazing and have inspired me to spend my life sharing and teaching others.

Peace Corps
From May 31, 2000 to April 10, 2002 I served the United States and the Republic of Latvia as a Peace Corps Volunteer. My primary assignment was as an English Teacher in secondary school in Aizpute. Besides teaching, I helped create a resource CD-ROM for Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. The Peace Corps was a great experience and I know that I will cherish those days for the rest of my life. While I was a Peace Corps Volunteer, I visited England, Sweden, Finland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Estonia and Lithuania.

Currently...
I finished my Master of Science in Information Studies in May of 2004. I then had the pleasure of spending a year in a temporary Reference Librarian position for the 79th Texas Legislature. Now, I have moved to San Antonio, Texas for a permanent job as a medical librarian. I find myself back in academia and very happy about it. My library is fantastic and my fellow library workers rock!

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