Interests in writing, horses and therapy help student from Lenexa become finalist for 2016 American Horse Publication student award
Monday, April 4, 2016
MANHATTAN — A Kansas State University student has been selected as one of three 2016 national student travel award finalists by American Horse Publications.
Kaitlyn Marolf, junior in print journalism and pre-occupational therapy, Lenexa, will receive a $750 travel award to go to the 2016 "May the Horse Be With You" seminar in Orlando, Florida, June 16-18.
Marolf has 10 years' experience in the horse world, including Pony Club, competing in several events and working at Twin Mill Farm, a facility of 60-some horses for five years. During her high school years, she won numerous national awards for her stories in the school yearbook and worked extensively on the school newspaper.
Currently, Marolf is assistant editor of Kansas State University's Royal Purple yearbook and is an ambassador for the A.Q. Miller School of Journalism and Mass Communications. She wants to obtain her master's in occupational therapy and plans to pursue careers in health and journalism simultaneously. She is the daughter of Steve and Diann Marolf, Lenexa, and a graduate of Shawnee Mission Northwest High School.
"As my various academic pursuits indicate, my passions are vast and, on the surface, not directly related," Marolf said. "For me, however, they mesh perfectly. I see it in very simple terms: I love people, horses and writing. This will allow me to help people through horses and use writing to communicate the value behind that bond."
As an award finalist, Marolf will be interviewed by the Student Award Committee at the Orlando seminar. The 2016 American Horse Publications Student Award winner will be announced Friday, June 17, and will receive $1,000 and an all-expense paid trip hosted by Publishers Press to one of its two-day customer education seminars in Louisville, Kentucky. The two runners-up will also receive a cash award at the discretion of the judges.
"This is the kind of journalism work I would like to do," Marolf said. "I would eventually like to be a pediatric occupational therapist and do hippotherapy — using horses as therapy — and freelance for health and equine publications on the side."
Marolf, a student in the College of Arts & Sciences, also is minoring in leadership studies and working on a certificate in equine science.
