For Katie Garcia, Rice University has never been just a place to study — it’s been part of her life story long before she ever stepped into a classroom.
Garcia grew up in Houston, not far from campus, in a family deeply connected to Rice, making her path to the university feel almost inevitable.
“Rice has always been a part of my life,” Garcia said. “My dad worked at Rice for 24 years, my mom and my grandma both went to Rice. And then I came to Rice for undergrad.”
That long-standing connection makes her journey to earning a Ph.D. in psychological sciences feel especially meaningful — even if it wasn’t always part of the plan.
“But I didn’t know I’d come back after undergrad, or that I’d be finishing my Ph.D. here,” she said.
After graduating with her bachelor’s degree in 2020, Garcia left Houston to begin her doctoral studies in Virginia during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Like many students at the time, her early graduate experience was marked by isolation.
“I didn’t see anybody,” Garcia said. “My outing was going to the grocery store just to get some human contact.”
Her path shifted when her advisor, Jing Chen, relocated to Rice after Garcia completed her master’s degree, giving her the opportunity to return home — both to Houston and to the university that had shaped her from the beginning.
“With a twist of fate, I was able to come back home to Houston and Rice,” she said.
Back on campus, Garcia found a renewed sense of connection, building relationships with her cohort and immersing herself in both research and community life.
“Coming to Rice, I actually had a cohort,” she said. “I saw them all the time and developed friendships and bonds with them.”
Garcia’s research in human factors and human-computer interaction focuses on how people understand and engage with emerging technologies, including automated systems, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity tools.
“My research is about how people interact with technology — how we trust it, how we use it, how we understand it and how it fits into our lives,” she said.
Yet, for Garcia, the most lasting lessons of her time at Rice extended beyond her research.
“But what I really learned here wasn’t just about human-centered systems,” she said. “It was about human connection.”
Seeking balance amid the demands of graduate school, Garcia became deeply involved in student leadership. As vice president of community engagement for the Graduate Student Association, she helped create spaces for graduate students to connect outside of their academic work. In her department, she served as president of the Rice Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Student Chapter and as social chair for the Psychological Sciences Graduate Student Association.
Garcia also served as a graduate student ambassador, helping prospective students navigate the graduate school experience and sharing her perspective on life at Rice.
“I needed balance,” she said. “So I found it in community — planning events, bringing people together, creating spaces where grad students could just be people.”
Her leadership not only strengthened the graduate student experience at Rice but also shaped her own growth as a researcher and individual.
“Serving the grad student community gave me an outlet for my organizational skills and made me a more efficient researcher,” she said.
Along the way, Garcia learned to navigate the pressures of graduate school with greater clarity and self-awareness.
“Managing four research projects at a time was a lot,” she said. “And I realized it’s okay to say no — it’s okay to choose yourself sometimes.”
Now, as she prepares to graduate, Garcia reflects on nearly a decade at Rice — as an undergraduate, a returning graduate student and now a Ph.D. recipient.
“I’ve spent the better part of a decade at Rice,” she said. “I’ve watched Rice change, and I’ve watched Rice change me.”
For Garcia, the journey is both deeply personal and profoundly full circle — rooted in family, shaped by experience and defined by growth.
“Houston will always be home,” Garcia said. “But Rice is where I became who I am today.”