Katherine Christopherson[edit]

Katherine Ann Christopherson (born 27 January 1997) also known as Katie, is a current student at the University of Arizona. She is a Early Childhood Education Major and hopes to become a Kindergarten teacher one day. She is the middle child of three children and has an older sister who lives in Tampa, Florida and a younger brother who is still attending high school at Brophy College Preparatory in Phoenix, Arizona. Her father holds a job with IBM, a computer hardware company, in which he sells accounting services to other businesses. Her mother who now stays at home, was a teacher for 15 years before she had the three kids.

Early Life[edit]

Infancy[edit]

Katie was born on January 27, 1997 in Scottsdale, Arizona. She was delivered prematurely and was delivered at HonorHealth Scottsdale Shea Medical Plaza. Katie spent an extra two month in the hospital in the newborn intensive care unit as she was born without her lungs fully developed. Once she arrived home in the beginning of April 1997, her mother, Elizabeth, began to feed her until she gained enough weight to be considered a healthy baby.

Childhood[edit]

As a little girl, Katie was a stubborn child. She loved attention and did not appreciate her stolen spotlight when her brother was born in November 2001. She took interest in playing with Barbie dolls with her older sister, Kiara, while their mother was attending to the baby.

The family moved six times before Katie turned ten years old. Katie's father, was working for a company when suddenly the company requested the family to transfer to Park City, Utah. The family was supportive and joined the move although it was a big adjustment for every one of them. Katie, in particular, had a rough start in her education in Utah. Her older sister had been accepted into the Catholic elementary school while Katie was not accepted as there was not enough room in the Kindergarten class for another child to join. She then started at the public school, Draper Elementary, and seemed to be much more advanced in her ability to read than the other children. Her parents decided to remove her from the public school and Katie's mother began homeschooling her. Her mother was a former teacher of fifteen years and was more than qualified to educate her daughter. The family rented a house for six months while their home was being built. The family moved once more, only to hear twenty-five days after move-in, that Katie's father was to be transferred back to Arizona where she is still currently attending school.

Education and Career[edit]

Elementary School[edit]

Katie Christopherson started her education eat Grayhawk Elementary School, also in Scottsdale, Arizona. She attended Kindergarten and Second Grade at this school. Her First Grade year was interrupted with a transfer of her father's job to Park City, Utah. She returned to Phoenix after 7 months of living in Park City. She started again at Grayhawk Elementary to finish her Second Grade year until her family moved again. She then attended Copper Ridge Elementary and Middle school until she reached the Eighth Grade and moved into her four years of high school.

High School[edit]

Katie was a shy and modest student in high school. She was a student athlete, participating on the varsity school volleyball team as well as the swim team. She kept up in her studies, graduating with a 3.96 GPA. She was a member the National Honors Society in which she participated in various philanthropy projects and also raising money for the school. She was also a mentor for freshman during her junior year through a club known as Tyro Mentors. She was assigned a group of freshman and met with them monthly to make sure they were easily adjusting to high school. During her junior and senior year, she was also a lead editor for the school yearbook.

College[edit]

Katie is a hardworking student who takes pride in the work that she does. Her first semester of her freshman year at the University of Arizona, she was a Pre-Business major. She thought it was a broad field and it would give her time to narrow down her options to decide what she really wanted to do with her career. The following semester she made the decision to change her major to Pre-Nursing. She is very patient and her goal was to work in a pediatric office or hospital helping ill children. Although, she enrolled in science classes at the University of Arizona and struggled with the amount of information given in the biology and physiology classes. She talked to her mother and she encouraged her to go into the teaching profession if her goal was to work with children. She is still currently working on her undergraduate degree to become an educator and hopes to teach in a Kindergarten or first grade classroom one day.

Throughout college, Katie has found her place at the large University through staying involved by joining various clubs and staying involved. Her freshman year, she joined the Zeta Beta Chapter of the Chi Omega Fraternity in which she has been able to make many close friends. The women's fraternity provides endless resources for educational purposes as well as outside contacts for life after college. The organization has also promoted philanthropy work with outside charities as well as a required grade point average to encourage the active members to be successful in their studies. Katie also joined Arizona Ambassadors Honorary in the fall semester of her sophomore year. In this honorary, she gives campus tours to prospective students and encourages them to attend the University of Arizona by sharing her personal stories and showing them important landmarks on campus.

Philanthropy Work[edit]

Chi Omega Fraternity[edit]

Katherine is currently an active member of the Zeta Beta Chapter of the Chi Omega Fraternity. She is actively involved in monthly philanthropy events such as raising money for Alzheimers disease, Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA), and Reading is Fundamental organizations. The Chi Omega Fraternity's special philanthropy in which they sponsor is the Make-a-Wish Foundation. The organization hosts two events each year in order to raise money for the charity. The fall philanthropy event is called Walk for Wishes. Families from Phoenix and the Tucson community who support or who were personally affected by this organization gather on the University of Arizona's Mall to walk and raise money to grant wishes to terminally ill children. This annual event takes place on a Sunday morning the second week of October.

The spring philanthropy event is called Chio Casino. This event is hosted a basketball gym at the University of Arizona's Recreation Center on a Saturday night in February. This classy event costs five dollars for guests to attend and all proceeds go to the Make-a-Wish Foundation. Guests are able to play blackjack, poker, bingo, and participate in raffles, and eat dinner.

References[edit]

Made to mirror parts of J.K. Rowling's Wikipedia page.