Hi everyone! My name is Katherine and I’m a second-year Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior major at UC Davis. I am from the Bay Area (408 where ya at 🫶) and am currently pre-pt! Believe me, I’ve questioned and considered every single health career path but through various experiences, I feel that the patient-interaction experiences physical therapists have with their patients most aligns with what type of connection I wish to share with patients. My hope as this year’s Academic Chair is to cultivate an inclusive, safe community while incorporating educational enrichment through the means of personal, professional, social, and cultural growth. I hope to be able to get to know you and hopefully fahcademics empowers you!

Beyond FAHC, I am currently a part of other campus involvements such as the UC Davis ICA Sports Medicine Internship Program as an intern and Bayanihan Clinic as a summer volunteer. Balancing academics, extracurriculars, mental health, and social activities have been a perpetual challenge for me. I hope as academics chair this year I can help reduce the toxic pre-health culture, such as duck 🦆 syndrome, by sharing my vulnerabilities, resources, and fostering a trusting and supportive environment. And yes, you’ve read that right. Duck syndrome is basically when one appears to have a peaceful, problem-less life, even if beneath the surface they’re struggling with all of the stressors in life. You don’t see how hard a duck paddles to swim. I’m completely guilty of this and I think it truly takes a lot of self-growth and reaching out for help when you’re struggling. Nobody lives a perfect life and that’s ok! Please reach out to me, any trusted individuals, or a medical professional if you’re going through a struggle. You matter and people care about you and your well-being.

Outside of college, I enjoy running (I’m not very consistent oops), playing basketball (you’ll never guess my favorite team :P), watching vlogs (esp traveling, cafe, and street food ones), taking photos, visiting museums, traveling (ESP PLANNING IMAGINARY TRIPS I’d go to if I had the money), exploring new foodie places (cafes are SO COOL, if I wasn’t a pre-health I’d just open a cafe despite having no business experience and severe caffeine sensitivity), listening to music (harry styles, olivia rodrigo, taylor swift, niki, rich brian, and A LOT OF KPOP- I prob listen to the artist ur thinking of rn!), I play the piano, ukulele, guitar, and xylophone in decreasing order of skill level. ;-) I’m also the proud Ate of a goldendoodle named Archie 🐶. I’m mainly introverted but I love talking to people, feel free to message me for anything!! 💘

~ Warmly, Katherine
#boogatekeeping #slay