Katie Rousopoulos

I met Katie Rousopoulos for the first time at Joe’s Montana Grill in Indianapolis. I was sitting there eating dinner with my sister, who’d come down to Indy to visit me for a weekend. She saw her friend Katie and her family sitting close to us and called her over when they got up to leave. We were introduced and I remember thinking that she was a strong, outgoing person. The following year, as I returned to Taylor as an assistant Residence Director, I got to know Katie much better. She was a senior, but was asked to be a part of the professional staff due to her tremendous maturity and capability as an RA the year before. We then spent the following two years as members of the same cohort of MAHE students.

Katie’s the kind of friend everyone needs because she’s the kind of person who will not let your friendship be one sided. For as long as I’ve known her, I’ve always seen her working to contribute to others in some way, shape, or form. For me, it’s been TONS of encouraging words. And that’s been good for me because I’m not one to necessarily take compliments very well. I usually try to avoid those sorts of situations, but she’s been so consistent in it that I’ve found myself much more open to accepting her compliments. Obviously, that’s a great way to make a person feel cared about.

Another important part about Katie is that she is Greek. I know, with a last name like Rousopoulos, that’s probably not all that surprising. Katie shares and celebrates her ethnic heritage more than any of my other friends. Two main avenues for this sharing are cooking and story telling. Whether she’s cooking or someone else is cooking, she always finds a way to share something about Greek culture through food. So Fun! Katie’s story about her family in the states and family who live in Greece are hilarious. I enjoy the subtle way that she can interject her cross-cultural experiences into conversations to add humor on the surface, but also to remind us that the way things work around me here are not necessarily the only way for things to work.

On that note, it is important to note that Katie is a world traveler. She’s obviously been to Greece, but also has spent time around Europe and China. She certainly has a passion for cross-cultural experience and how that can contribute to growth and maturity. I think her experiences abroad have fostered, in her, an authentic desire to understand others. Whether someone is older or younger, from a different cultural or social background, holds different opinions or the same, Katie genuinely wants to understand the people she’s around and what makes them different (though I am sure she’d describe us as unique; not different). What a joy it is to have a friend who I am so confident wants to know me. God Bless you Katie!