Hi! I’m Katie

Blue Ridge Expeditions Leader

This will be Katie’s ninth summer at GRP–she spent six years as a camper and expeditioner, two years as a counselor, and is so excited to return this year as a BRX leader! She is currently finishing up her undergraduate studies at the University of Virginia, where she is double majoring in English and French and just turned in her senior thesis (yay!). Following her summer at GRP, she is moving to Grenoble, France to teach English. Her favorite backcountry meal is pita pizzas, but she harbors a strangely fierce love for those little oatmeal packets, too. Her favorite memory at GRP was basically all of her Western Expeditions trip, but in particular a hike to the Ice Lakes –it was one of the most beautiful places she has ever been. Her favorite outdoor activity is hiking, but she’s spent a lot of time lately lounging in the grass and reading, if you could call that an outdoor activity. Her favorite outdoor adventure trip was to the Isle of Skye in Scotland, during her time studying abroad in Edinburgh, Scotland in the fall of her third year of college. It was otherworldly, and the landscape was unlike anything she has ever seen before–she will cherish scrambling over those rocky trails, getting uncomfortably close to sheep, and staring at the ridiculous number of rainbows that appeared for years and years to come. GRP feels like home to Katie, and she loves the family she returns to and gains every summer she is there. It’s a place of learning more–both about oneself and the world we all live in–and it’s such a gift to have a space to be relentlessly silly while also running around outside most of the time. She loves seeing campers and expeditioners experience this sense of learning and growth, too. She can remember how her years as a camper here gave her new, more hopeful ways of seeing what is beautiful in the world, and she hopes to give this to her expeditioners this summer as well. In her free time, Katie loves singing and playing violin or guitar (and desperately wants to master banjo), writing, and enjoying the outdoors. She can also say any word backwards, like, really quickly. Just ask her about it sometime.