How Penn Charter Is Like Facebook

How Penn Charter Is Like Facebook

PC Profile of Kathleen Huber OPC ’04

By Jennifer Raphael

It’s very fitting for Kathleen Huber, who works for the biggest social networking organization in the world, to say that the most memorable experience from her years at Penn Charter was the practice and understanding of community.

Kathleen Huber

“At Meeting for Worship, for an hour a week we would all be together in the same space. It’s great to have that opportunity to reset as an individual and think about events that affect us all,” she said. “That’s an opportunity not many people have in high school, let alone in life.”

Huber currently works for Facebook in user operations, which she describes as “a motley crew of teams” who manage everything from site integrity to user safety. Huber works on the intellectual property team, handling reports of infringement on Facebook and Instagram.

Huber has been working for Facebook since she graduated from Harvard University, where as a student she witnessed Facebook’s infancy and growth. “Facebook was always a core part of my college experience. Even before I got to campus people were sending friend requests,” she said.

“But Facebook as a career possibility wasn’t always in mind.”

Huber chose psychology as her academic focus. “I was interested in how people connect, how we communicate, what makes us tick,” she recalled. She wrote her sophomore paper on how social media is altering the way people communicate.

One of Huber’s friends and fellow Harvard swim team members went to work for Facebook and remembered Huber’s paper. She urged Huber to come take a look at Facebook, specifically user operations.

Huber applied for an internship in the summer of 2007, right before her senior year at Harvard. “It was an awesome experience and an exciting time for Facebook, especially in user operations because it was the year they went global. It was a realization of Facebook’s mission, which is to make the world more open and connected,” she said. At the end of the summer, she received a formal job offer and went back to Harvard knowing she would have a fantastic job waiting for her when she graduated. Once she started working there, she noticed more than a few ways Facebook and Penn Charter are alike.

“Facebook has an internal mantra. ‘This journey is 1 percent finished.’ Penn Charter is similar. It was constant learning, constant thinking outside the box,” she said. “And then, there’s community. I consider my coworkers my friends, and there is a working community here at Facebook that is very similar to PC.”

Despite being so far away, Huber stays connected to the PC community and her East Coast friends and family through Facebook, of course. “PC emphasized living a well-rounded life, to challenge yourself and to participate in the extracurricular. I was interested in arts but I was also a three-season athlete,” said Huber, who played soccer, water polo, swimming and lacrosse while at PC. “I was in the art room, the library, the Writing Center and on the field and in the pool. PC allowed me to be true to all my interests. That was tremendous. I believe I still maintain those values and exhibit that kind of behavior around my friends and coworkers today.”