Holton mom turns hardship into energy to give back to the community
20 March 2024
MANHATTAN (KSNT) – With a focus on growing community, educating others on the importance of self confidence, and putting in the work across Kansas to inspire everyone she meets, Katelyn Andrist truly exemplifies what it means to be a remarkable woman.
Recently graduated from Kansas State University with a degree in Human Development and Family Science, Andrist uses her education to connect closely with others.
“When you understand something and you understand somebody it allows you just to take flight to really help somebody,” Andrist said.
And help she has! Traveling on behalf of students across Wichita, Manhattan, Dodge, Lawrence and beyond for half a decade.
“For the past five years every year I do my annual backpack drive,” she said. “I have cultivated over 10,000 bookbags with different school supplies of scissors, pencils, pens, markers, crayons you name it. I’m telling you, people want to give, but sometimes you know, you just don’t know where to start. That’s where I’m here for!”
For the K-State grad, cultivating a caring and compassionate space in her local area is what it’s all about.
“I’m telling you, community is everything to me,” Andrist said. “It’s really important in Manhattan that we are a community based of a home. These kids need to understand that you have to give back. You have a hand, you have a heart, and that’s what it’s meant to be.”
That message of community, along with others like mental health, self confidence, body positivity and more manifested into a powerful passion project.
“When I was 21 I just felt like I could do more for the people around me,” she said. “Little girls little boys, all the way up to our senior community. That’s where Becoming Confident came alive. We all struggle with self confidence and so for me, I wanted to take flight that I want to be vulnerable and I wanted to have that conversation.”
Nearly two years later, her book Becoming Confident is in 100 public libraries, nearly a dozen book stores, and even the Library of Congress. If that wasn’t enough, Andrist goes on tour around the Sunflower State to really showcase that message for those that need to hear it.
“Someone in that audience they need to hear my voice, and I also need to see their eyes,” Andrist said. “I need to see that light. I always tell the kids Kansas is the Sunflower State, when the sun is shining a sunflower follows that. Sometimes when you can’t be a follower, you have to be the light for others.”
Katelyn is looking forward to the upcoming fall semester, where she’s heading back to K-State as a graduate student. Before then though, she’ll be representing as Miss Southern Kansas on the Miss Kansas stage this summer.