Cathy Walters Profile (Third Story)

Having worked almost eight years as a Designated School Official (DSO), Cathy Walters is an international student’s lifeline in Knox College. Whether it’s about tax forms, I-20s or work authorization – Walters knows all the legal gibberish.

“My job is interesting. It’s rewarding… but it’s also a little frustrating sometimes,” says Walters. She is the advisor for international students as well as the designated school official providing a liaison between students and immigration.

Cathy Walters was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1957. She was the first child of two young parents.

“I grew up very sheltered,” she says, “but exposed to a lot of different things.”

At the age of three, Walters’ father joined the US Navy. The family moved to Hawaii and continued moving every three years. As a child she lived in Hawaii; Long Beach, California; San Diego, California; Key West, Florida; Atlanta, Georgia; and Newport, Rhode Island. Walters recalls a conversation she had with her parents as a young child after moving.

“My parents told a story of me asking where all the other kids were and they couldn’t figure out what I meant. And I meant the Asian kids and the white kids that I grew up with in Hawaii because we had to stay only in black areas and only to eat -- you know -- in certain places,” she said, “Even though the law of the land was different. It was still 60–61 and the conditions were more difficult for African-Americans at that time.”

Segregation was still the rule of the land in the United States during the 1960s.

“I grew up thinking that we should all live together and interact as people,” she says.

One of the problems that she faced as a child was the double life she had to live. Life at the Navy base was very different from the life she had when she had to live with her grandmother in Atlanta. While her father was away on training, Walters stayed with her grandmother and attended a segregated school.

“There weren’t a variety of people to interact with that I was used to,” she said.

Walters majored in Psychology at Agnes Scott college, an all-woman’s college in Decatur, Atlanta.

“Sometimes you don’t know how to do things until you get through them. But, if I had to do it over again I would double major,” she says, “I would double major in Sociology and Psychology.”

Initially Walters was interested in teaching.

“I thought I wanted to teach little kids as a teacher. Special-ed actually and I did an internship during that and realized that no that was not for me,” she says.

Her first job as an adult was in Navy. She wanted to travel again and had “itchy feet” as she didn’t want to settle down.

“I joined the navy to see the world,” she said.

Her first posting was to Japan where she lived in the town as opposed to in the naval base.

“I liked it so much because I was tall,” she jokes.

After ten years, Walters left the Navy as she and her husband wanted to start a family. Previously, she worked in a two-year community college. She came to Knox in summer of 2001, as she wanted to work in a four-year college.

“No one comes to Knox by mistake,” she laughs.

Walters heard about Knox through a professor whose raffle she had won in a faculty raffle fundraiser while in college. Her professor had a biplane called “The Stearman”, the same plane that has a rally every year in Galesburg. He explained to her about the history of the planes and how they were made in Galesburg.

“[There was] something about Galesburg and Knox that stuck in my mind,” she recounts, “[Knox College] was hiring an admissions person at that time and I applied.”

Walters has been in Galesburg for almost ten years. Her husband works as the Web Editor for the Register-Mail while her son and daughter go to college.

“I’ve grown to like Galesburg,” she said. However, her only complaint is about the lack of bookstores in Galesburg.

“I want a place with a bookstore - and Stone Alley and Olden books just don’t cut it.”