Katie (Wade) Austin, BS ’12, BA ’12, was interviewed by Evelyn Megery, an honors student pursuing a double major in writing and multimedia and creative writing with minors in communication studies and business, science and technical writing. Outside of academics, Evelyn is involved in the Polaris literary magazine and Northern Review student newspaper and works as a marketing intern for The Rogers Company.
When Katie started her academic journey at ONU and in the Honors Program, she initially set out for a Bachelor of Arts in German. She had wonderful teachers growing up, and knew that she wanted to strengthen her foreign language skills in college. As she continued to excel in her German courses, Katie was inspired by her roommate to pursue an additional major in manufacturing technology where she learned the intricacies of how to build complex machinery.
Upon her graduation from ONU, Katie earned her master’s degree in teaching English as a second language at Kent State University and then taught ESL students at the University of Toledo. She is currently teaching robotics and vision-related technologies to students at FANUC, one of the largest industrial robot manufacturers in the world, and is transitioning to become one of FANUC’s newest application engineers.
Throughout her four years at Ohio Northern, Katie learned the importance of being intentional with your education. Rather than earning one degree, Katie pushed herself to earn two degrees in four years, work on new credentials, and build her resume. The Honors Program was a way for Katie to gain leadership skills, enrich communication skills, and engage with ONU and the local Ada community.
For example, being a member of the Honors Program gave Katie the opportunity to live in a community of like-minded and academically-focused students. In fact, some of her closest friends in college were involved in the program. She admits that some of the most interesting courses she took were the Honors seminars, which cover a variety of topics, have smaller class sizes, and are exclusive to honors students.
Perhaps one of the most impactful experiences of the program for Katie was working on her Capstone project. It allowed her to dive deeper into a topic she truly enjoys: German culture. Noting how patriotic Americans were after 9/11, Katie became curious as to how Germans felt about their own country. Her project consisted of a series of interviews in which she asked the German community the central question: what do you think it means to be German?
One memory that Katie has from the Honors Program is how busy her schedule was as her classwork became more time consuming. She can relate to students that question whether the Honors Program is worth the commitment when there are so many other organizations students are involved in. Katie suggests that no matter how crazy your schedule gets during your college career, you have to “stick it out” and push through the challenges until you graduate. She assures students that their hard work and dedication will be worth their time in the end.