Friday, January 23, 2015

Student Spotlight

Katie Trivitt – Minor in Computer Science

Katie is from Oklahoma City, OK. After attending Bishop McGuinness High School, she joined OU where she is pursuing a B.S. in Mathematics with minors in Spanish and Computer Science. Her mother, who graduated from SWOSU with a degree in Computer Science and is a computer programmer, encouraged Katie to take Intro to Computer Programming. Katie’s father is an Electrical Engineering graduate from OSU. It seems evident that science and mathematics are a strong suit in the Trivitt household; Katie grew up participating in science fairs and other engineering hobbies.
Because of her father’s alma mater, Katie grew up wanting to attend OSU. However, she kept an open mind and came to Norman to visit the OU facilities. A friend of her father, Dr. John Fagan told her: “Everybody can train you to be an engineer, only OU can train you to be a whole person.” This piece of advice convinced Katie to come to Norman, as an Engineering-Undecided major before switching to Mathematics. She is an OU Regents Scholar and part of Alpha Gamma Delta. Katie also studied abroad in Madrid, Spain during the Spring 2014 semester.
Katie’s change in major was motivated by her passion for teaching. She is a math tutor for UC Action and got a very sought after internship with Breakthrough in Summer 2013 and 2014. At Breakthrough in Fort Worth, TX she had the opportunity to teach science to underprivileged middle school students with strong academic potential. Katie will be done with her degrees in May 2015 and she has applied for Teach for America and to the masters in education program at Notre Dame University, which would allow her to teach during the academic year. Her dream job would be teaching math and Spanish at a low income Catholic school. However, Katie realizes that teachers are not paid adequately and sees her minor in computer science as a tool to make her more marketable if needed.
Katie loves coding and building her own software. She particularly enjoyed classes with Dr. Trytten and Dr. Radhakrishnan. She has made good friends in Computer Science and some of her favorite moments in college have been spent struggling with them all night on projects.

Katie is very busy outside of school and likes to spend time dancing, including swing, ballroom and salsa, when she is not volunteering for the Food Bank, Americorps, or St Thomas More’s Catholic Church.