Katelyn Griffin

From an early age, my dad introduced me to hiking and the outdoors. Some of my earliest memories are me sitting on his shoulders while exploring the North Georgia Mountains. From Tallulah Gorge to Rabun Bald, these hiking trips instilled in me a lot of qualities that I still value to this day. He showed me the importance of being patient when waiting for meteors to go across the night sky. He showed me the importance of understanding how things work and their role in the world. These are things that I still hold close to me and led me to choose my major. I still believe that I am never done learning what nature can teach me. I have completed hiking all 76 miles of the Appalachian Trail in Georgia, and am currently working on completing the NC/TN section of the trail while balancing my schoolwork and research. I recently put all of my knowledge of the outdoors to the test when I went backpacking in Colorado for 2 weeks this summer. Even when things went wrong (bears, injuries, and broken tent!); I was able to apply so many of the things I have learned over the years to complete my trip and be able to arrive back to Athens safely for my junior year of college.