#SoCaltech: Kathy Johnson

"My parents happen to be Methodist missionaries. We moved to France for a couple of years when I was really little, like 2, and then we moved to Algeria, where I grew up. The neighbors, Algerian and foreign, were my friends, and we would run around doing kid things. I went to Algerian schools, and when I was old enough, my parents sent me to the French high school. After I graduated, they sent me off to the United States. I had come back to the United States before to visit family, but it's not the same. It felt to me pretty much like what an international student must go through. Even going to the grocery store was mind-boggling."

Kathy Johnson, who grew up outside Larbaa nath Irathen and Algiers in Algeria, is Caltech's author services librarian. 

#SoCaltech is an occasional series celebrating the diverse individuals who give Caltech its spirit of excellence, ambition, and ingenuity. Know someone we should profile? Send nominations to magazine@caltech.edu.