2014 Fellow Interview: Catherine

The following interview was originally published in the HackNY FieldGuide for the tenth hackNY hackathon where hackNY celebrated the graduation of its fifth class of hackNY Fellows. Kyle Ryan '14, interviewed a selection of fellows during the summer to discuss what made them tick.Want to become a hackNY fellow this summer? Checkout apply.hackny.org.Catherine currently attends the University of Chicago, she was the hackNY fellow at Oscar Health in SoHo this summer.Where did you grow up?Howell, NJ. It's a small town in central Jersey. We lived in Howell almost my whole life. We moved once about a block away. I have one sister who is older than me, and when I was 10 we adopted two kids from Ukraine. I was homeschooled for 5 years, so I was in a really sheltered environment. I transitioned to going to public school which was very traumatic. We all know how welcoming elementary school kids are.I was ahead academically when I transferred. When I was homeschooled, I didn't have video games or anything, so I read a lot of books. My older sister was a huge influence. I didn't get into Computer Science until later. I taught myself Python in high school, but didn't start taking CS until my second year of college.What's your biggest struggle?I would call it 'self-confidence.' I need to convince myself that i'm well suited to the task at hand. I tend to fail to internalize my own accomplishments. It's basically the imposter syndrome. Usually I do just fine, but it's still something that I get anxious about.What advice would you give the person you were 4 years ago?I was probably sleeping this moment 4 years ago, haha. I was a lot more uptight about grades. I was your stereotypical 'oh my god, I have to be valedictorian and get good grades.' I guess I wanted to get into a good college. I've always been a huge perfectionist.I would tell them to stop worrying so much. I've stopped worrying about my grades. Because in the end, everything will be all right.Where do you see yourself going in 4 years?I still have 2 years left of college so I don't know if I should get a job in tech or go to grad school. As cliche as this sounds, my biggest goal is just to wake up every morning and love what I do. That's where I want to be.