Katie Elster

About Katie Elster

I was born and raised in Santa Barbara, California and I am proud to call it my paradise of a hometown. Ever since I can remember I have always had a passion for performing, creating and educating. I started dancing when I was 4 years old, doing Ballet at the Santa Barbara Festival Ballet. I began doing Jazz when I was 6 at Santa Barbara Dance Arts (formerly known as Santa Barbara Jazz Dance Academy). Upon entering high school I decided to take a leave from dancing in studios to focus on competition dance, which was what I was doing with the San Marcos High School Marquettes Dance Force (the performance and competition dance team at my high school). After graduating from San Marcos High School, I attended Santa Barbara City College, where I decided to further my dance education under the instruction of Tracy Kofford in styles such as Jazz, Contemporary, Modern and Lyrical. I also decided to further my training in Hip Hop under the instruction of Tamarr Paul at Rhythm Dance and Fitness studios. I spent 3 years at Santa Barbara City College (20••••14) where I completed my General Education requirements and received two AA degrees in Liberal Studies.(Liberal Studies: Arts and Humanities and Liberal Studies: Social Behavioral Sciences). It was at SBCC where I found my passion for acting on screen and decided that was what I wanted to do upon transferring to film school in LA. I transferred to Loyola Marymount University in the fall of 2014, majoring in Screenwriting and minoring in Theater with an emphasis in Screen-acting. I actively auditioned for student films through the LMU School of Film and Television and have acted in many projects and have written several full feature screenplays under the guidance of Professors, who are in the industry. I graduated from LMU in May 2016, Cum Laude, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Screenwriting. After working at Columbia Pictures, on the Sony Pictures Entertainment studio lot, for almost a year, I elected to return to Santa Barbara to pursue my other lifelong passion; becoming a teacher. I worked at MyGym Children\'s Fitness Center for 3 years as a lead teacher and one of the two dance program directors/instructors. In Fall of 2018 I was hired to work as the Dance Specialist at El Camino Elementary School in Goleta. During my year there I applied to UCSB\'s Teacher Education Program (TEP) and found out I was accepted for the 20••••20 school year. I graduated from UCSB\'s Graduate School of Education, at the start of a global pandemic, with a Masters Degree in Education and multiple subject teaching credential.

Experience

1. 1st Grade Teacher

   Peabody Charter

   Aug 2020 — Present · Santa Barbara, CA, US

   1st Grade Teacher

Education

• Santa Barbara City College

  Associate's Degree

  2011 — 2014

• UC Santa Barbara

  Master of Education - MEd

  2019 — 2020

• Loyola Marymount University

  Bachelor's Degree

  2014 — 2016

Skills

• Creative Writing
• Theatre
• Customer Service
• Modeling
• Acting
• Social Networking
• Microsoft Office
• Dance
• Public Speaking
• Powerpoint
• Photography
• Microsoft Word
• Screenwriting
• Writing
• Facebook
• Dancing