By J1 Reporter Quinn Findley 

Mrs. Katy Salzman has been a teacher at Marian since the fall of 2016, but teaching at Marian, Omaha North and Creighton Prep is not the only path her life has taken. Mrs. Salzman has lived in a variety of places ranging from North Carolina to Geneva, Switzerland. 

At the age of 1, she and her family moved to England where she lived for six years. Although she moved back to North Carolina around the age of 7, she was inspired to move back to Europe as she got older. 

While completing her bachelor’s degree at Guilford College in North Carolina, Salzman pursued her love for French and studied abroad two times. She first studied at Paris, France and then decided to live abroad in Brussels, Belgium, for a semester of her senior year. 

While she was studying in Brussels, Salzman worked as an intern for a British member of the European Parliament–a part of the European Union. 

After she graduated from Guilford, she wanted to pursue her passion in European Policy. She then studied at the Catholic University of Leuven in Leuven, Belgium, where she received her Masters in European Studies. 

Once she graduated from the University of Leuven, she was hired at the UNHCR- the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. After two years of temporary contracts, Salzman was offered a more permanent job for the United Nations in Geneva,

Switzerland. There, she worked with the European Bureau on European Policy as an Affairs Consultant. 

Her goal was, “To have a refugee policy that the European countries would have in common.” She worked as a connector trying to find common ideas between representatives from different countries and affiliations throughout the European countries. 

However, working in the UNHCR requires moving every couple of years. The workers are constantly moving because they go where the refugees most need them. Once Salzman met her husband in Belgium, they turned her focus to starting their family, she realized that the field she was working in would be very difficult to continue. 

Her husband was offered a contract at Creighton University and they decided to move to Omaha where they now have  lived for 20 years. But the idea of Omaha was not the brightest in her mind. 

“When I found out that I was coming to Nebraska,” she said, “Well, we can stay there for a year, but we are not living in Nebraska indefinitely.” However she has come to love it, she even said that Omaha is now her home. 

Salzman said that living in all those different places has hugely affected her outlook on life.“My focus is always out. I’m always following world news, following events and what’s going on. I find that that makes my life interesting. I think that all my students should all study abroad,” Salzman said, “I was interested in European studies… there’s nothing to do in the States with that. But I was interested in it, so I pursued that and it turned out that I got work in that field.” 

Salzman said that it has greatly impacted her view on the world, and continues to today. She still keeps up to date with worldly news. Her children have followed her lead. Her daughter Emily Salzman, a junior at Marian, shares the same opinion. 

Emily said, “I grew up knowing so much about the world and the conditions in developing countries and that led me to be more interested in the news and current events.”

Emily said she hopes to follow a similar path to her mom’s. “My mom’s journey to where she is now has inspired me to do something that benefits others in the future,” she said.