Story of You
Hi, my name is Katey Bator! My favorite hobby is herpetology, but I also enjoy researching psychology in my spare time. Currently, I am attending the University of Central Florida and majoring in Interdisciplinary Studies with a minor in Information Technology. I also work in the IT industry. Although I never actually studied IT until I was an adult, I would still troubleshoot the home computer and come up with my own solutions when I was growing up. Often, this involved a lot of breaking before the fixing, which my mom did not appreciate. Being able to explore technology at a young age created the foundation for me to learn more about IT as an adult.
Outside of meddling with technology, I developed a passion for herpetology as a child, throughout the many adventures I partook in. This meant exploring the great outdoors to find and capture lizards, frogs, snakes, and other reptiles. We lived in a more rural part of Florida, in a city called Alva, which allowed me to fully enjoy herpetology. My family encouraged my hobby by purchasing reptiles such as turtles and leopard geckos for me to take care of and learn more about what they needed to thrive.
While living in Alva, I attended Alva Elementary and Middle School. Eventually, we moved to Estero, FL. where I started at Estero High School. Throughout my time at Estero, I signed up for activities and clubs such as Color Guard and the Culinary Team. I was also a dual enrollment student, taking classes at Florida SouthWestern State College, and a part of the Cambridge Advanced International Certificate of Education (AICE) Diploma program. I signed up for the AICE Psychology course while in high school, and this class started my intertest in psychology. After graduation, I moved from Estero, to Orlando, about 7 years ago to attend Valencia College.
Valencia College Winter Park Campus, where I took all of my classes:
During my time at Valencia, I was a part of the Seneff Honors College and I completed the Jeffersonian honors track while receiving my Associates degree. My work and participation in the Jeffersonian honors track more than affected my personal and academic growth. This track seemed to focus a great deal on empathy and interpersonal relationships which I have always taken great interest in. From classes like Intro to Humanities and Speech I learned to refrain from bias and connect more with others so that I can understand them and create more enlightening situations in my life.
I focused on classes that broadened my knowledge and did not force me to focus on a specific area. I enjoyed the Jeffersonian track because it focused on understanding others and being more knowledgeable about other cultures. As part of the program, I was able to visit the Netherlands with my class. While we were in the Netherlands, we spent most of our time with Dutch students from Koning Willem I College. Being able to travel to a new country and create long lasting friendships with students from another culture was a life changing experience for me.
My class in Amsterdam, Netherlands
After completing my degree at Valencia College, I took a 2 year break from school and spent my time working in the food service industry. The reason that I did not continue with my bachelors degree right after Valencia was because I had no idea what I wanted to pursue and what I wanted my future career to be. Eventually, I grew sick of the food service industry and knew that I had to go back to school in order to progress further in my life. I decided to apply to UCF and pursue a Bachelors of Science in Information Technology.
I started my classes in the summer of 2019 and had no prior knowledge of IT before starting my degree. All of the classes were teaching me completely new information. I learned how to do things such as programming in different languages and I learned about new technologies. The programming classes were the most enjoyable part of the program for me because of how challenging programming is. I completed most of the IT courses for my program, but ultimately ended up switching my major to Interdisciplinary Studies due to being diagnosed with a math disability and being unable to complete the math courses in the IT program.
An interdisciplinary studies degree from UCF is different from most standard degrees because rather than just focusing on one field, the degree integrates two or more fields. Interdisciplinary Studies helps develop creative thinking by understanding and synthesizing potentially different viewpoints, ideas, concepts, and information as well as potential biases. Through this, individuals can learn new ways of thinking about different topics that would not be possible through a single discipline approach. The IDS degree also differs from other Interdisciplinary Studies degrees because it incorporates a broader scope of curricula than similar degrees offered by other institutions. There is a greater amount of freedom at UCF, so that students can tailor their curriculum to best reflect their interests and needs.
Another reason I chose to major in Interdisciplinary Studies is because I’ve discovered throughout my studies that I prefer being a jack of all trades, no matter my field of focus. I believe that no matter the field, there is value in getting perspectives from other methods, fields, or viewpoints because these outside ideas can yield better and more robust solutions. An Interdisciplinary studies degree is perfect for this.
My degree allows students to choose two fields of focus when studying. In my case, I chose Letters and Modern Languages and Behavior and Social Sciences as my two fields, with a minor in Information Technology. The degree is structured this way to cultivate the interdisciplinary mindset, by intertwining fields and gaining new insight from this integration. Although I am almost done with my degree, there are still a few more studies that I want to integrate into my expertise. For example, I want to take a few more language classes to improve my writing and communication skills.
Around the same time I started my classes at UCF, I began a Work Study position at UCF Rosen College of Hospitality Management as an IT technician. While working in this role, I assisted with a variety of tasks and even helped facilitate a campus wide transition to cloud storage. After a few months as a Work Study student, I asked my supervisor to be promoted into an OPS role. So at the start of 2020, I began working my new role as an IT Technician and Digital Media Specialist. This role involved the same tasks as my previous role, but with the addition of working with Faculty and providing technical support for their classes. After three and a half years working at the college I received several certifications such as:
The TestOut IT Fundamentals Pro certification.
Essentials of Webcourses@UCF
Panopto Essentials
Zoom Essentials
Faculty BlendFlex Training courses at UCF
These certifications were fundamental in helping me support faculty and staff at my job.
UCF Rosen College of Hospitality Management:
Working at Rosen College gave me a great amount of experience in the IT field. I worked with a small team and this allowed me to have more responsibilities and learn a wide variety of IT skills that I would not have learned in a more specialized position. Some of the projects I worked on involved using tools such as the Windows Deployment Tool and even migrating servers at the college.
I recently left UCF Rosen College to start a new position as an IT Tech at Rosen Hotels & Resorts, Millennium Technology Group. There are over 13,000 guests and more than 4,500 employees across the hotels and resorts. I provide support to both guests and employees by utilizing the ticketing system Kaseya. Some of my duties involve performing computer software and hardware installations, configurations, and diagnostics. I also utilize system management and configuration tools such as MECM to image computers. In addition, I install, configure, and diagnose the InfoGenesis Point-of-Sale (POS) Systems at various hotel locations for staff and event use. Learning how to troubleshoot the POS Systems has been particularly interesting to me and a valuable skill to acquire. I hope to learn more about InfoGenesis in the future. I also have worked on the SALTO Systems electronic locks that Rosen utilizes on their properties. There are so many new technologies to learn in this role, and I am happy to have the opportunity to continue expanding my knowledge and abilities. Once I develop a mastery of the new technologies, I want to focus on learning more about the applications side of Rosen. Part of that would entail developing and refining my knowledge of SQL.
One of the properties at Rosen Hotels & Resorts, Shingle Creek:
Throughout my education I have worked on various assignments and projects. Writing is one of the many skills I have grown and nurtured while in school. While attending Valencia College, I created a portfolio website about my experiences at Valencia. This website showcase my writing skills, experiences at Valencia, and some of the different things I learned while there.
You can view the website here: https://kateykrist.wixsite.com/mysite
Also, this boomla website was originally my project for ENC 4265: Writing for the Computer Industry. This course taught me how to improve my technical writing in the IT industry.
You can find all of the writing assignments I completed for the course here:
Outside of work and school, I spend my time engaging in hobbies such as thrifting, herpetology, and hiking. I am very interested in herpetology and have been since I was a child. When I was younger, I had several pet reptiles such as leopard geckos, bearded dragons, and turtles. I currently have one pet leopard gecko and am constantly researching how to take the best care of him. I enjoy spending my extra time researching herpetology and attending reptile expos when they are in the area. Whenever I have my own house I would like to start breeding leopard geckos as a hobby. I will need a lot of space for them which is why I cannot start yet.
Hiking is another favorite hobby of mine. Some of the places I have visited and hiked at are the Glacier National Park in Montana, the Cliffs of Moher, and Slieve League in Ireland. Rocky Mountain National Park and Yellowstone National Park are both on my bucketlist for places to hike next.
Visiting the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland:
