HHS Alum Katherine Shirley Shines at Ohio State
Huntington High School Class of 2012 member Katherine Shirley is the first to admit it; she didn’t take school work seriously until she was a senior. That was a long time ago. Today she is shining at Ohio State University and studying to become a child psychologist.
“After barely passing classes in school for five years, I finally turned it around in twelfth grade,” Ms. Shirley said. “With constant support from my guidance counselor, Mrs. [Cathy] Croke and my favorite teacher Ms. [Camille] Tedeschi, I turned my C’s into A’s and earned a 3.8 grade point average in my senior year. I remember seeing my name on the honor roll for the first time and I ran outside the school because I didn’t want people to see me crying.”
While her academic turnaround was remarkable, it came too late for Ms. Shirley to realize her desire to head out of town for college. But, instead of giving up, she redoubled her efforts.
“Once senior year ended, I felt regret for not trying harder and I was angry with myself for not changing sooner,” Ms. Shirley said. “Although I had these feelings and a desperate want for going away to college, I knew staying home and attending Nassau Community College was a second chance to redeem myself. After making the Dean’s List my first semester at Nassau, I started [sending out] college applications. I was accepted to the University of Vermont, University of New Hampshire, University of Rhode Island, College of Charleston, Penn State and Ohio State.”
The Huntington alum is having an exceedingly positive experience at Ohio State, which is located in Columbus. The university boasts 175 undergraduate majors and an estimated 12,000 courses. It has a total enrollment of 63,058, including about 49,500 undergraduates. OSU has 500,000 living alumni.
“Choosing Ohio State was one of the best decisions I’ve made,” Ms. Shirley said. “I feel so special to be sophomore at OSU, knowing where I stood academically just a few years ago. I truly feel like the comeback kid. I’m planning on declaring psychology as my major. My dream for the future is to help children who are involved in family divorce and make it as painless as possible for them.”
Although Huntington High School is now in her past, Ms. Shirley has maintained a close relationship with Ms. Tedeschi. Along with many other Huntington students, Ms. Shirley participated in several private international trips with EF Tours with Ms. Tedeschi serving as a group leader.
“I feel really lucky to have Ms. Tedeschi in my life,” Ms. Shirley said. “She helped me build confidence in myself and made me cultured. She exposed me to traveling and now I blame her for my travel addiction! This past March, I visited my sister, Dane in Prague and we went to Paris together. That was my best trip to date. I’m now planning on studying abroad in Paris in the spring of 2015.”
The teacher and her former student aren’t through traveling together just yet. Ms. Tedeschi regularly heads to foreign lands during vacation periods and Ms. Shirley seems to be following in her footsteps.
“Going to Peru, Italy, Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii with Ms. Tedeschi were some of the best experiences that I have had,” Ms. Shirley said. “If it wasn’t for those trips, I’m not sure if we would be as close as we are now. We still keep in touch and are planning another adventure for summer 2014. We were supposed to travel [last summer] to South Africa together, but I unfortunately had to cancel because school interfered.” After all, school comes first these days for Ms. Shirley.