Thinking about her life, Loyola Marymount University mathematics grad Kara Dismuke offers up a quote from the English poet John Donne: “No man is an island.”
Growing up after her parents divorced when she was three years old challenged Kara to face real-life situations and grow up faster than others might have. Today at 21, she’s not only grateful for the those challenges and the strength she saw in her mother and grandmother but also for the support of the many people in her family, through sports, and in her education over the years.
“They say it takes a village,” Kara said. “I was given a safe place to grow and fail and learn what I wanted to do in the future.”
Kara chose math. She loves that it is both an objective and a discovered reality. Its applicability in many fields also opens a lot of doors whether in engineering, teaching, technology, science, or business. After graduating at the top of her class – with the highest GPA in math – Kara will enter a two-year program at The Boeing Company designed to launch promising young workers on management paths. The job offer came after two summer internships at Boeing.
Kara played sports year round, competing in soccer, baseball, and basketball. And since her senior year at LMU, she’s been coaching the basketball team at Orange Lutheran High School, her alma mater.
“The ability to walk alongside high school girls and help them understand life through the game of basketball is something I really value and a privilege I don’t take for granted,” said Kara, who will continue coaching the team through the season before starting at Boeing at the end of June.
After graduation, she hoped to continue to coach the basketball team as well to spend more time with family and friends: “It’s more about who you do things with than what you do. I’m really blessed to have a lot of people around me who really care about me.”
Kara talks about the accessibility of faculty at LMU and how the fact that professors she had three years ago remember her “just blows my mind.”
“It’s been a great experience for me – I love LMU.”
Her advice for undergrads? “Come in humbly and try to see each person as a child of God from whom you can learn something.”
