On May 7, a group of family and fans headed up to Storrs to celebrate graduation day with an exceptional member of the UConn Class of 2023: Anne Katherine “Katie” Hooker.

Katie, who was Guilford High School Class of 2019 valedictorian, not only graduated summa cum laude from UConn but had the honor of giving the commencement speech to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CAS).

Katie earned a bachelor’s degree in molecular/cell biology and minors in French and psychological sciences. For earning a 4.0-grade point average all four years, she was designated a Babbidge scholar in UConn’s Honors program.

In her junior year, Katie helped UConn stand out as a university due to her selection as a national Goldwater scholar. She was one of just 417 college students nationwide to earn the prestigious and highly selective science scholarship tuition award in 2022. Katie said she plans to put the funds toward graduate school.

“Knowing that I wanted to go into graduate school was the push that made me decide to apply for it,” she says.

As a high school graduate, Katie chose to attend UConn over Boston College, as well as over a delayed admission offer from Harvard University to join its Class of 2024.

“The gap year for Harvard was what ultimately pushed me toward UConn,” says Katie.

At UConn, she received a full, four-year scholarship through the Nutmeg Scholarship Award, which recognizes exceptional Connecticut secondary school seniors.

While all of these accomplishments may lead one to logically conclude Katie’s immediate next stop is graduate school, that assumption would be off the mark by one year. In the fall, Katie’s heading to Reims, France, where she’ll spend a gap year as an English teaching assistant.

“I will be teaching secondary school, which is their equivalent of middle school and high school,” says Katie.

It’s a big change that’s been nearly a year in the planning.

“I studied abroad last year in Toulouse, which is in the south of France. I was only there for four weeks, and I decided that wasn’t enough,” says Katie.

She spoke with her UConn professor in the program, who recommended Katie apply for the Riems teaching assistantship program. Last fall, instead of applying for graduate school, Katie applied for the assistantship.

“I decided to put those graduate school applications off for another year because if I don’t do this now, I’m not sure I ever will!”

Following her gap year in the fall of 2024, Katie is planning to begin graduate school to study genetics. She’s looking into applying to programs that have caught her interest at schools, including the University of Pennsylvania.

“I’m really interested in earning a Ph.D. in genetics, and UPenn has a really fantastic program in genomics and computational biology that I’ve been exploring,” says Katie. “I might turn back to Harvard as well, and I think Duke is probably up there, too. So those are probably my top three right now.”

After earning her doctorate, Katie expects both to teach and do research.

“I learned a lot from my undergrad professors who engaged in both, so I think that’s something that I’d like to continue,” she says.

While there’s no doubt Katie is a standout member of her UConn class, her opportunity to speak at the CAS commencement was not handed to her. She applied and auditioned for the honor.

“I really enjoyed speaking at high school graduation, so I think that’s what kick-started things for me,” says Katie. “But I think the real deciding factor was that UConn was a formative four years for me, and I know, at least for a lot of my friends, it was very similar. So I wanted to close that chapter off with a nice little ribbon and share some of those sentiments with the rest of the class.”

She hopes her thought-provoking, inspirational speech rang true for those at commencement.

“I talked about coming out of high school thinking that my life was written for me, and I was supposed to follow a set of plans that I thought the rest of the world wanted for me,” she says. “And [I] talked about how I’ve realized I have the power to make decisions for myself for what I want from my life, and not what other people want for me. And that was fostered by the opportunities that I had at UConn, which ultimately led to me taking a gap year instead of going right into graduate school.”

While she’s grateful UConn allowed her to shine academically, Katie’s also glad she got to be a fellow Husky, especially this year, when the men’s basketball team made its exciting run to win the NCAA national championship.

“I think that was one of the great things about being at UConn. I was really able to find my tribe in addition to exceeding academically,” she says. “I definitely made sure to celebrate the men’s victory!”

Another aspect of Katie’s student life at UConn ties back to growing up studying and performing Irish step dancing.

“UConn actually has an Irish Dance team, which is awesome. I was a member all four years and then had the privilege of being president this past year. We really stepped up our game the last couple of years. There’s a collegiate Irish Dance association, and they’ve gotten into hosting competitions, so we attended a couple of those,” says Katie. “And it’s really just a cool social group where we have both beginners and advanced dancers.”

As a UConn undergrad, Katie also had a job on campus, working for the Honors Program as an Honor Guide for Peer Success.

“It’s a peer-mentoring, peer-advisory role, but that was also how I truly met a lot of the people I got to know as an undergrad,” she says. “It was also another mentorship experience that got me thinking about possibly teaching down the line.”

On her UConn graduation day, Katie says it was pretty amazing to cross the court at Gampel Pavilion to give her commencement speech.

“I honestly don’t think I had ever stepped foot on the floor of Gampel until graduation, so it was kind of cool to bring that to close,” says Katie.

For those who may just be embarking on their undergraduate journey, Katie’s happy to share some advice for academic success.

“It’s really about taking advantage of all the resources there are. I think, going to UConn, it’s such a large school that it’s hard to know what’s available to you. There are things like tutoring opportunities and a writing center, and I’m sure there are similar resources at other universities.”

There’s also another bit of advice she’d like to share.

“I think the biggest piece of advice I would give is to also know when to put your homework away. That may be a piece of advice that’s more tailored to myself than other people, but that was something I’m glad that UConn taught me. You can’t always have your head in the books all the time.”