Fellow Friday: Katharine Janes

Fellow Friday: Katharine Janes, JIF '12

Katharine soaking up the California sun on a recent Spring Break trip

Hometown: Mount Pleasant, Michigan 

High School: Sacred Heart Academy 

College: University of Notre Dame 

Major: International Economics 

Why did you decide to become a Fellow?

Most essentially, my desire to become a Joyce Ivy Foundation Fellow stems from my own participation as a summer scholar in 2012. My experience at Brown University was truly life changing, exposing me to new ways of thinking and motivating me to more deeply explore my collegiate possibilities. Thanks to my experience as a Summer Scholar, I applied to schools I would have never otherwise considered. I also met some truly incredibly people at Brown, with whom I am still in regular contact. I became a more confident, motivated, and inspired individual after that summer, and I longed to help facilitate this transformation in the lives of other girls.

As a Fellow, I knew I would have the unique opportunity to reach out to and assist young women who are now in that position. I get to form individual relationships with girls from around the Midwest and help them on this collegiate journey, guiding them as they explore where they will spend the next four years of their lives. I love communicating with others and hearing their stories, and this has certainly been available to me during my time as a Fellow. I want to continue to be a resource, accessible to supply advice and support to current and future JIF Scholars. 

What is your favorite memory from your summer experience?

For every day of my two week summer experience, two friends and I would go out for a run. Our route was always the same: through campus, down a massive hill, to the Rhode Island capitol building, and then back up the hill to our dorm. Two memories related to this activity stick out in my mind to this day. Firstly, the hill we had to climb to return to campus was massive and incredibly daunting, but by the end of the week, we would successfully scale to the top without batting an eye. The second is that, every time we would make it to the capitol building, we would run to the top of the steps, sit down, and peacefully gaze off into the bustling city below.

Why does the Joyce Ivy Foundation rock?

I would say empowerment is my favorite element of the Joyce Ivy Foundation. The ability of JIF to show young women their full potential and allow them the opportunity to study at world-class institutions of higher learning is incredible. I love seeing girls at the first banquet -- a little shy and entirely unsure of what is to come -- and then following up with them months later. After meeting the other Scholars and experiencing their own summer program, they become transformed. The empowerment they experience (and I experienced during my time as a Scholar) is tangible.

How did JIF affect where you are today?

As I alluded to above, I would not be the person I am today without JIF. Educationally, my experience at Brown challenged me to think more critically about material with which I am presented and consciously seek out academic challenge. As an individual, I became more articulate and confident in my abilities as a scholar. And as a prospective college student, my JIF experience inspired me to apply to highly-selective schools to which I otherwise would have never considered.

Do you have a question for Katharine?  Email her at kjanes@nd.edu.