Katherine
Katherine is thoughtful, deliberate, and simply a joy to talk to. She pauses to consider questions, then answers with a certainty that comes from knowing who she is and what she believes. She’s a proud Christian, big sister, and viola player, and she reads — "I read and read and read and read everything." She’s not your average young person, with wisdom and grace beyond her years.
Katherine has always dreamed of becoming a paleontologist. And to hopefully discover her own dinosaur. She has a very detailed plan of how her education will look: starting with a postgraduate program to become a veterinary assistant, then community college, then a four-year university. "I decided I wasn't going to go to college unless I knew exactly what I was going to do with it."
When she found out she won a Pedestal Fund scholarship, Katherine's mom practically screamed with joy. "She hugged me. My whole family was so excited, like, very excited.”
At her old school, Katherine struggled. Not having any of the same interests, she felt different from her peers. She's on the autism spectrum, and her school wasn’t designed for kids like her. Assignments that were supposed to be quick ended up taking her all night, if she could finish them at all. "I forgot my reason for living, I thought it was just to do my schoolwork." But this year she transferred to North Star Academy, a school designed for students with learning differences. The change brought her back to life, and she’s proud of the hard journey it took her to get there. "Even the worst times of my life, it was all to make me stronger. Iron sharpens iron."
She draws her incredible strength from her family and her faith, and when she wants to give up, she turns to a line from Rudyard Kipling's poem If: "If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew to serve their turn long after they are gone, and so hold on when there is nothing in you except the Will which says to them "Hold on" " Katherine wants people to know she can do anything she sets her mind to, she’s not weak, and she's not afraid of hard work. "I want to make a difference. I can't change the whole world. I'm finite, but I want to make everything I come in contact with a little better, a little brighter, and a little more beautiful.
The Pedestal Fund is honored to help Katherine discover her dinosaur, continue being a lifelong learner, and make everything she comes in contact with a little more beautiful.