Katherine Olson - Saint Paul, Minnesota, US 

A Tribute to Katherine: Letting Her Light Shine seeks your support to bring together a fractured community yearning to celebrate the life of this young soul lost to violence and to help build this memorial scholarship fund which will benefit Latino youth for many years.Please join this tribute and help us raise $100,000 to highlight the cause dearest to Katherine and to extend her legacy.

The community came together to mourn, now it is time to come together and let Katherine's light shine.

Katherine Ann Olson was energetic, exuberant, vivacious, intensely curious, creative, and talented. She was passionate about life.

Whether she was performing in choir, acting in a play, or mentoring her Latina "little sister", Katherine was a role model. She achieved honors of co-valedictorian of her high school class and graduated summa cum laude from St. Olaf College. Following college, she taught Spanish lessons to elementary students, nannied, waitressed, and coached the Saint Paul Highland Park High School speech team.

A restaurant colleague of Katherine's recalled that she would always find Katherine in the kitchen--conversing in Spanish with the Latino staff. "She would smile and laugh and probe them with questions, making the rest of us want to be a part of their special conversation. And when times were slow, one would find Katherine helping them translate their paperwork."

Preparing to study in Spain in the fall of 2008 for her master's degree in Spanish, Katherine hoped to become a professor, combining her loves of Spanish, youth and performance.