My name is Katie Jeffreys. I am 27 years old and am from Buffalo Grove , IL, although my family now lives in nearby Barrington, IL. I graduated from The North Shore Country Day School in Winnetka, IL in June 1997 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA in June of 2001. I lived in Baker House for my first two years at MIT, and in the Alpha Chi Omega Sorority house for the last two. I lived in Sugar Hill, Harlem in New York City for quite awhile, but now live in Whitestone, Queens.  My time at MIT was busy: I worked for The Tech , MIT's student newspaper, as a writer, photographer and Features Editor. I was known on campus for my weekly vegetarian column. Go to the paper's site and search for my articles to read more! I was involved in the Musical Theater Guild , stage managing ROBOTS, doing publicity for Chess and Company and producing You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown  as well as set design, costume design and serving on the board. I was also involved with MIT as an alum, as the Class of 2001 Alumni Class Council's Vice President from 2001-2006.

 In my freshman year at MIT, I took ten classes over two semesters:

Fall Term 1997:			Spring Term 1998:
5.11	Principles of Chemical Science		5.60	Thermodynamics and Kinetics
8.01X	Physics (Kinetics- with experiments)		8.02X	Physics (Electricity and Magnetism- with experiments)
18.01	Calculus		18.02	Multivariable Calculus
21L.004	Major Poets		21L.487	Modern Poets
MAS.A03	The Evolving Documentary		21W.765J	Interactive and Non-Linear Narrative

I declared " Course 1-E" or Environmental Engineering as my major. I decided to double major in Literature , simply because I enjoy it. I then took more advanced/specialized classes:

I had several jobs while at MIT. One was a UROP in the Environmental Engineering Department. I used a spectrophotometer to measure the decay of superoxide in a photosensitive solution containing sea water samples in order to determine the effect and reactivity of unknown dissolved organic matter in sea water. In my other job, I tutored young children in reading and writing as a part of the America Reads program. I continued to do this for a couple years, and worked with three great girls in third, fifth and sixth grades. My Junior and Senior years I worked at the 24-hour coffeehouse on campus, which is a low stress, fun job where i get to meet cool people and play my own music. I was promoted to Purchasing Manager and had fun buying food for the coffeehouse.

The summer after freshman year I worked at EMT, an environmental consulting firm near my hometown. I did quality control charts, financial analysis and formal procedure writeup, as well as filling in around the lab and on the field. The summer after sophomore year I was in Venice, Italy, working at Thetis, s.P.a. Basically, the city is sinking into the lagoon (or more realistically the sea is rising), and there are huge efforts to stop that from happening. I made maps of environmental data around the lagoon and wrote programs which calculated data from the past 50 years so that trends in wind, precipitation, etc. could be examined. I also designed web-based systems in which this data could be viewed to show changes of time or parameter. More on Venice:

My time at Thetis, and in Europe, was the most amazing experience of my life. My work was interesting and challenging. I would be given a project to which there was no known answer (at least within the company) and I had to solve it any way I could. This involved a lot of creative thinking and problem solving. The environment was not stressful, and few deadlines were imposed, which allowed me to work until I felt my results were the best they could be. This sort of environment suited me well. While my work was somewhat menial, the approval of my supervisors assured me that it was important to the greater projects they were involved in. Some of my projects (maps, web pages, etc) were presented across the globe, from Germany to Brazil.

 

Additionally the experience of living and working in a foreign city was very unique. Because the confines of Venice are very small, over three months I learned my way around the tangle of streets. I also picked up the language well enough to understand and converse with someone who spoke little or no English. This allowed me to make friends with native Venetians/Italians, and to get to know the city and its customs even better.

 

Travelling around the Venice Lagoon and Europe was also a wonderful cultural experience. The many museums, arts, and landmarks were as interesting and educational as I had hoped. Thetis was great because the company closed for a week in August, allowing me to travel around Italy and up to Switzerland and Paris.

 

Finally, I would like to emphasize how wonderful working at Thetis was. Initially I was upset because I had to walk 30 minutes each way to work in the hot summer sun. But eventually I came to love the walk, seeing the familiar sights of women chatting from their windows across the alleys, the fruit sellers unloading the fresh produce, etc. The offices themselves are new and comfortable, and the employees are young and friendly. My co-workers were always willing to help me, whether it be in finding a doctor when I was ill, renting a car at a good rate when we travelled, or finding the right bus to take when going home. I really felt included in the company, and I think that made a huge difference.

In the summer of 2000 I worked at Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, MI. I estimated the amount of certain pollutants used in the car parts in order to determine whether they can be recycled. I also worked with a team of interns to develop a recycling strategy for their new low speed vehicle, the TH!NK Neighbor .

I graduated in June 2001 and moved to New York City in September to start a job at New York Consulting Partners at Luminant Worldwide . Before I started work in New York,  I returned to Venice for a summer internship at ISDGM , a research institute that examines the environmental conditions of the lagoon. You can see pictures of my adventures in Europe. NYCP/Luminant was a small consulting firm located in Manhattan, where I was a supply chain consultant .  I live nearby in a great apartment . Just over a week after I moved in, the World Trade Center was attacked, but that hasn't changed my appreciation for the city. In December Luminant laid off half the company, declared bankruptcy and was bought by Lante, another consulting company.  I got a job as a waitress at Park Avenue Country Club, an upscale sports bar and restaurant around the corner from my house. 

After five months of looking, I finally found a "real" job as an environmental consultant at a company called AKRF, Inc. The most amazing part was that the office was literally three minutes from my front door, next to the PACC! In October was laid off from that job (I enjoyed the work, but there wasn't much of it and ultimately I wasn't a good fit in the company). I was unemployed for three months, and now am working for the Louis Berger Group, which is a similar company to AKRF. It is located down by Wall Street, so I became a commuter! In fact my commute increased when I moved to Harlem in May 2003. I also began taking classes at night in Interior Design at FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology) in NYC. I hope to become a certified interior designer!

In March 2004 I found a job at an Interior Design company, Manhattan Renovations. I worked there for over six months doing high-end residential gut renovations. After my stint there ended, I found a job as an Assistant Manager at Vintage New York, a wine shop and tasting bar selling all New York wine! It was a great chance to learn about wine, retail, and bartending. Next, I workes as a waitress at Metro Cafe & Wine Bar for about a year. I loved my regulars and learning more about wine. After Metro, I returned my focus to interior design full-time, and currently work at Richard Mishaan Design as a Project Manager/Interior Designer. We do high-end residential and hospitality projects with budgets reaching seven figures. We also have a line of furniture showcased at the A&D building in New York and soon to launch in shops in China.