Katie's DuckStory
If you can catch a moment with University of Oregon student Katie Dwyer, you'll immediately sense she's a young woman on a mission. As a senior in the Clark Honors College, Katie is pursuing a double-major in Comparative Literature and Sociology with a minor in Spanish. She spends her free time as a tour guide for the Honors College, works with the American English Institute to host international scholars, volunteers at local clinic Volunteers in Medicine, spends evenings at the Campus Wesley Center, and hours on the Recreation Center's climbing wall. Indeed, this busy young woman throws herself so much into her UO experiences, it's a wonder she ever sleeps. "If you have a rock wall, a craft center, and faculty who want you and need you," Katie explains, "you should take advantage of it. Otherwise, you won't get the fullest benefit from your education. I'm never bored. I don't have time to be."
In additional to her extracurricular experiences on campus, Katie has studied and traveled abroad in Chile, Guatemala, and Peru leading to her fluency in Spanish. She's also participated in the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program, founded at Temple University in 1997 to bring students and prisoners together to study issues of crime, justice, and related social concerns. The program was so influential that Katie decided to use the experience as a basis for her senior thesis. Supported in part by the Honors College Wigham Family Thesis Prize, Katie will focus on "strategies for bringing diverse people together in constructive dialogue, examining teaching methods for doing this in the classroom." To that end, she recently attended the Inside Out Training Program in Philadelphia which trains professors in teaching strategies for the classes.
Looking back, it was clear to Katie that the UO was a perfect fit, even when she couldn't quite articulate why. "A huge part of why I came to the UO was my summer visit. Most campuses I saw were closed for the summer but the UO was busy, filled with flyers, events, summer classes. I also toured the Honors College and was excited by the small Liberal Arts option within the larger UO. It was obvious that there's a lot going on here, which I didn't know I needed at the time- but I know now."
After looking at several colleges in the northwest such as the University of Puget Sound and Lewis and Clark College, her decision was clear. "This was the only school I applied to because I knew it was where I wanted to be," she remembers. In thinking about her time at the UO, Katie is quick to point out that, "Going to class doesn't give you skills for the real world. But you can get skills through internships and volunteer programs. The whole point of higher education is to gain the skills to be of use in the world."
She feels she's been supported by exceptional faculty and advisors in the Honors College who pushed her to consider extracurricular activities, study abroad, internships and volunteerism as part of a well-rounded undergraduate experience. In Katie's words, they've been "really responsive."
Looking forward to her post-graduation life, Katie says, "This is an exciting time. I know I'll find something to dedicate my life to and do great things, or even small good things." She plans to teach English in Spain, pursue graduate school and work with NGOs in Latin America on issues of health education and sustainable development. Ultimately, she'd like to work as a professor and in doing so touch the lives of students as UO faculty have done for her.
Asked about the importance of giving back, Katie gets quiet for moment before responding with the gravity of someone who's thought a lot about this question. "For me," she reflects, "studying sociology is looking at systems of inequality. It is so obvious that I've had privilege my entire life. UO has been so good to me, offered me so many opportunities. To recognize that and not do anything would be grossly unfair. To me, once you see it, you can't not do something."
Learn about scholarships to support students like Katie»
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