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.
