Katie Lopez
AITE 2023
US Navy
A Future 5 Ambassador, Katie credits Future 5 for providing a welcoming place where, as a shy student, she could build her confidence and follow her dreams.
“Lizzie, Karen and everyone at Future 5 were so friendly from the start,” she adds. “They helped me through challenging Covid struggles, when I felt like I was slipping in my academics, and connected me to Laysha, a former Future 5 student, who helped tutor me in math to get back on track. Future 5 was like a second home for me. I made a lot of friends and I felt motivated. Everyone was so friendly and I felt the entire Future 5 community wanted me to succeed.”
One of Katie’s first memories of Future 5, after joining as a freshman, was winning her first Brainwave challenge! She credits some of her success during the popular Future 5 weekly current events contest to her Spanish teacher at AITE, who always encouraged students to watch the news in Spanish. Her parents both immigrated from Ecuador, but Katie’s first language is English and she is working to become bilingual. Having lived her whole life in Stamford, she has always been interested in travel, adventure and service, so it was no surprise when, as a senior going through the college process with her Future 5 coach, Donna Sueden, she felt a driving desire to shift her focus to follow her cousin, Josh (also a former Future 5 student) and pursue a career in the US Navy. Her coach encouraged her to follow her passion and helped coach and prepare her for her meeting with a recruiter. Now she’s prepping for the exam that will help determine what path she’ll take in the Navy, which she hopes will be in the area of mechanics or engineering.
