Profile

About: Hello! My name is Katherine Anne and I am a senior at the University of Texas at Austin, majoring in Plan II, French and Computational Engineering! I was born and raised in Texarkana, Texas by my fabulous parents, Darby and Jennifer, alongside the best little sister in the world, Johanna Claire. I am a member of Pi Beta Phi sorority on campus, and I am also involved in mentoring through the Plan II/KIPP partnership. This past summer I studied abroad in Oxford, England and Lyon, France, and over winter break I was a ski instructor in Telluride, Colorado. I love playing the piano, guitar and singing in a rag tag ABBA cover band. Other interesting things about me: I hate wearing shoes, I love riding horses, I love trying new foods, I hate the smell of coffee, I'm a self proclaimed movie snob, I love to write, I'm really good at mental math, water skiing and skeet shooting, my favorite movie is Gone With the Wind, my favorite book is "Wuthering Heights" by Emilyl Brontë, my favorite poem is "Miracles" by Walt Whitman and my favorite painting is "Jessica Penn in Black with White Plumes" by Robert Henri. I really love Galatians 6:9-10, "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people." I believe that man is the sum of their experiences, and I would not be who or where I am without the incredible people who have loved and instructed and supported me throughout my life, and I want to do all that I can to "do good to all people" as they have taught me to do!

Why I Ride

My life has been marked by a series of events that brought the ugliness of cancer to the forefront of my mind. I always knew cancer was ugly. It took my grandmother before I was born, and affected the remarkable step-grandmother who loved me in her place. When I was fifteen, I spent ten days as the only cancer-free patient on the oncology floor at Children's Hospital in Dallas. I saw kids my age who had moved in for the long haul, fighting a monster too vicious for me to comprehend. When I was seventeen, I read "The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer" by Siddhartha Mukherjee and was exposed to the evolution of cancer prevention and treatment from ancient Egypt to today. But the most impressive event of all was a phone call I received in January of 2017, when my mom told me she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Suddenly, the helplessness of the kids from Children's and millennia of cancer diagnoses was on my shoulders. And there was nothing I could do.
I have no aptitude for entering the medical field, but I still want to stop this disease from leaving daughters, sons, sisters, brothers, fathers, mothers, husbands, wives helpless at the turn of a diagnosis like I was. I'm biking to fight that despair. I'm biking to celebrate my mom's recovery, and my grandmother's life. I'm biking to support others still fighting, and the incredible researchers, doctors, and nurses helping them every step of the way. I'd like your support, but more than that I would love to ride in honor or memory of anyone you know that has battled cancer or supported someone through their fight. Feel free to text or call me anytime :) 903.306.9434