Student Spotlight: Katherine Ellis, Horn

Katherine Ellis knew exactly what she wanted to do when she turned 11. Eleven was the magic number, the minimum age requirement to join the International Order of the Rainbow for Girls (IORG), an organization that Ellis had been waiting to join since her father first told her about it. 

IORG is a Masonic organization dedicated to inspiring young women and girls from ages 11 to 21 to engage in service projects and develop their professional and personal lives. 

"We teach the members public speaking, leadership, confidence and help our members grow into confident young women," Ellis said. "We focus a lot on community service, developing the girls and we raise money for charities and take on charity projects. I really like all the volunteering we get to do. In a couple of weeks, my local assembly is doing the Huron River cleanup. Because we change charities, there's such a variety in the work we get to do.” 

When Ellis first moved to Michigan from Missouri, she sought out an IORG assembly to ease the transition to a new state and make new friends. She became part of the first assembly for her region in Michigan.

"I love that IORG is an international organization," Ellis said. "I'm lucky enough to be able to travel to different states and form friendships that I'll have for the rest of my life. I've seen so many girls when they get initiated and watching them come out of their shells is really fulfilling—it's so great to help them along that process."

This past July, Ellis took on a role as Grand Worthy Advisor (GWA) for the state of Michigan. As the GWA, Ellis gets to coordinate the theme that the organization will focus on, including the charities and organizations the girls will work with.

"My job is to be a role model for our girls," Ellis said. "As Grand Worthy Advisor, I want their voices to be heard. I don't want the girls to think of this as my year, I want this to be our year, something for us. We want to become as flexible as we can be and we want to make sure we are accommodating our members. This can mean things like giving people rides and finding ways to make sure that they can come to meetings and participate."

Ellis maintains that same mindset at Michigan. She strives to find communities where she can meet new people and celebrate common passions. 

"Band was my lifeline throughout high school," Ellis said. "When I first went to college, I wanted to keep that same support system. It was a natural choice for me. I love every time we play Nessun Dorma during a sunrise; it's beautiful and you're playing something beautiful. The MMB is worth it. It is incredibly hard to do what we do physically, academically, mentally and musically. We do it because it is worth it. That goes for U-M as well."

Ellis is pursuing a Chemical Engineering degree. She plans to obtain a masters and work in industry with a focus in renewable energy and biofuels.

"I loved chemistry and I've known I wanted to be an engineer since middle school," Ellis said. "I love the problem solving and the artistry involved in making the solution work in the best way possible."

This past year, Ellis was a part of the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) at Michigan. The program places students with mentors currently working as researchers in their field. The students work on research projects and present their findings at the final symposium in April. Ellis worked on a project that ran through the ALS Institute.

"In my project, I would extract blood samples and check them for pollution and environmental toxin levels," Ellis said. "I would then send [the samples] to another analyst to determine if the patient had ALS. We had some contamination in our data from our glassware and the airways in our lab. When you are looking at environmental toxins, it can be difficult to determine what came from the sample and what came from the lab. That was one of the challenges I analyzed in my presentation at the symposium."

UROP has helped Ellis gain additional research experience, like her involvement with Glotzer Group. The Glotzer Group is a computational research group that uses coded simulations to model phenomena. 

"I really enjoyed the hands-on chemistry aspect of my project," Ellis said. "It set me up really well for finding other research opportunities, learning to talk to professors and preparing my findings. This summer [at Glotzer] I got to use the python to run simulations on a supercomputer and observe how different forces and dynamics affect the diffusion of a cylinder."

After an exciting summer with IORG and Glotzer, Ellis is ready to return to the Big House for another season as a member of the horn section.