2025 Student Spotlights - Katrina Watson - Family & Consumer Sciences
One could write volumes about the things Katrina Watson has accomplished during her time as a student at Cal State Long Beach -- and the story is still being written. Simply put, in the words of Dr. Maria Carpiac, Director of the CSULB Gerontology Program, Katrina Watson “really is a superstar.”
Katrina will be walking this spring at the 2025 College of Health and Human Services (CHHS) Commencement with her Bachelor’s degree in Health Care Administration and as the CHHS Outstanding Undergraduate. She finished all her undergraduate coursework in the fall, and is currently a student in the Master of Science in Gerontology program, as well as pursuing a Graduate Certificate in Applied Disability Studies. Once she walks at Commencement this May, she’ll be right back to her studies at CSULB.
“She continues to impress the heck out of me every day,” Dr. Carpiac said. Katrina contacted me about the Gerontology [Graduate] Program when she was still a junior, and rather than waiting until she graduated with her undergraduate degree (and Gerontology Minor), she hit the ground running with taking courses toward the Master of Science in Gerontology concurrently with her undergraduate studies.
Gerontology was one of Katrina’s four minors as an undergrad, studying in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences. She also obtained three additional minors in Management Information Systems, Health Humanities, and Comparative World Literature. During her time as an undergrad, Katrina has received many scholarships and awards, including a CSU Trustees award.
Asked about how she finds the time for everything, including how she manages to balance work with her extremely rigorous coursework, Katrina cooly says, “I have a lot of calendars.”
Katrina says she grew up in a family where college was impressed upon her as a necessity, a foregone conclusion that she was going to get her degree and make something of herself.
“One thing that was very important to me was that I didn’t just want to get a degree; I wanted to find a career path that I was interested in, and start building a network, so I knew I had to be more intentional about that; I had to do more in school than simply going to class,” Katrina says. “I may have done a little too much,” she quips. “But I think I set the intention that I want to be involved. I want to find things that are going to make sense for me now and carry me forward.”
While a full-time student, Katrina is currently serving as the We Honor Veterans Program Coordinator for Geiss Med Hospice offices in California, Nevada, and Idaho Professional Organizations. During her time as a student, she has accumulated over 2,000 hours of hands-on healthcare experience across internship placements and jobs with experience in the hospital, homecare and hospice settings.
“Some people don’t even want to talk about hospice because it’s a difficult conversation to have. It’s the end of someone’s life and that is very personal,” Katrina says. “I didn’t start off with the intention of ending up in hospice; they were looking for volunteers and was like, ‘I need the experience, because I would like to have a job at some point and need to show that I know what I am doing and that I’ve done this before.’”
Early in her academic career, when Katrina began looking at the different populations that she could work with in healthcare, she quickly realized that she wanted to work with older adults.
“My older family members have been around for so much of my life, and it feels very easy to talk to them and I do it every week, so it seemed natural to me that I would work with the older adult population.”
As a program coordinator for the We Honor Veterans Program, Katrina has been able to play a part in special moments, such as organizing a pinning ceremony for a veteran who was under hospice and going to pass away soon.
“His family was able to be present and several of his family members were also veterans, so they really appreciated the opportunity to see that he was getting recognized and to thank him for being in their lives, as well as say goodbye to him,” she says.
In addition to her work, Katrina cites many special memories while a CSULB student, including participating in academic competitions. She was the Team Captain that led her group to a 1st place at the 2024 ACHE (American College of Health Care Executives) of SoCal College Bowl Experiential Learning competition.
Though unfathomable to think Katrina has spare time on her hands with all of her academic and professional activities, Katrina admits that she likes to unwind by putting together jigsaw puzzles. She tells about a 2,000 piece puzzle that she had when she was younger and which she fell in love with when at an art store. Recently, Katrina’s brother’s girlfriend found the exact puzzle on eBay - Queen of the Night by Josephine Wall (pictured below). The puzzle came in a gallon Ziplock bag, yet all the pieces were there. Now that the semester is ending and Commencement is imminent, perhaps Katrina will find time this summer to work on a few other jigsaw puzzles. However, there is no doubt that Katrina, and her many calendars to keep track of her busy schedule, will flip through the summer months in no time, ready to begin another rigorous academic year, poised for the future.
“I have never known a student with so much self-direction, determination, and impeccable organizational skills,” Dr. Carpiac says. “I have no doubt that she will make significant contributions to society, and I’m so honored to support her on her journey.”
Congratulations, Katrina!
