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University of Notre Dame Valedictorian Katie Washington: A Terrific Role Model

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As colleges and universities across the country celebrated their students' accomplishments this commencement season, the news about the top student at the University of Notre Dame was especially inspiring for me. Twenty-one-year-old Katie Washington from Gary, Indiana made history as Notre Dame's first Black valedictorian. Katie was a biological sciences major with a minor in Catholic social teaching who earned a perfect 4.0 grade point average. She is planning to pursue a joint M.D./Ph.D. next at Johns Hopkins University, and she said she was "humbled" and "in a mode of gratitude and thanksgiving" by being named valedictorian. In a culture filled with superficial celebrities, beautiful, brilliant, hardworking young women and men like Katie are real role models and ought to be on the cover of our magazines. They're who our children should aspire to be.

Katie's work ethic and passion for medicine were instilled in her by caring parents. Her father is a doctor and her mother is a nurse, and an older brother and sister have chosen medical careers too. In interviews Katie remembered going to her father's office after school, where she would sit and do her homework and later had the chance to accompany him as he visited patients. She also thanked teachers and other adult mentors who encouraged her over the years, saying, "I have had so much support, people who really wanted to see that I reached my full potential. They all had my best interest at heart." Meanwhile, her proud parents and teachers remembered how disciplined she was and how hard she always worked.

As an undergraduate Katie conducted research on lung cancer and spent a year and a half studying the mosquito that carries dengue and yellow fever. She did some of her research in partnership with Notre Dame's Haiti program and helped show how human habits in Haiti contribute to infectious mosquitoes' spread. Her studies outside the lab included serving as student coordinator of the Center for Social Concerns' "Lives in the Balance: Youth Violence and Society" seminar. In her graduation speech she spoke of the shock that occurred when she visited a juvenile re-entry program as part of that seminar and met an old childhood friend who was trying to turn his life around after being involved in the juvenile justice system. Although they had grown up in the same neighborhood, she was moved by how differently their lives had turned out so far.
