September 2023 Issue

EAST COAST EQUESTRIAN September 2023 Page 27 Tell our advertisers you found them in East Coast Equestrian! 44 Edgefield Rd. • Quarryville, PA 17566 GEAR Awards Annual Youth Scholarships At their June horse show, the Greater Eastern Appaloosa Regional Association awarded $750 youth scholarships to five very deserving young Appaloosa youth competitors. The GEAR board of directors started the scholarship program last year to support hard working Appaloosa youth competitors in their further education. Scholarship winners can be enrolled in community college, a four-year college or a trade or vocational school to be eligible. The 2023 GEAR Scholarship Recipients are: Alayna Rosynek A second year recipient, Alayna finished her first year at Moravian University with a 3.79 GPA and intends to pursue a career in Wildlife Conservation. She hopes to obtain an internship next summer with the Penn- sylvania Game Commission to help her move toward her goal of becoming a Game Warden. In addition to attending school full- time Alayna works as barn help for Sport N Spots Appaloosas and at a restaurant and a grocery store. She is a member of the Moravian University Equestrian Team. At Sport N Spots Appaloo- sas, she has shown several young horses in halter, hunter in hand and in hand trail. Last year she was eighth overall in the Yearling In Hand Trail and national high point in Youth Most Colorful at Halter and Youth Hunter in Hand Geldings. Katherine Hochstuhl Katherine, also a returning scholarship recipient, currently attends Bergen County Commu- nity College working towards a degree in Communications. Her educational goal is to pursue a career in Sports Marketing and Communications, working for a major league corporation. In her application essay, Katherine stat- ed she has struggled to determine her career path and credits her Appaloosa, Allie, for helping her push towards her goals and define her path forward. Katherine also works as barn help at Amy Wunderlich Performance Horses and as a server at the Taphouse in Wayne, NJ. Last year, she was national high point in Non-Pro Hunter in Hand Mares and Open Hunter in Hand mares. Carly Studt The final returning schol- arship recipient is Carly Studt, who studies engineering at Rutgers University. She plans to major in either civil or environ- mental engineering and has a 3.5 GPA in a very hard major. Carly credits her years riding and showing with teaching her to set goals and work hard to achieve them, developing good sportsmanship skills and that there is always room to grow and improve. Emma Erickson Emma, a recent high school graduate, is a first time GEAR scholarship recipient. Emma has enrolled in a 5-year BS/MS Physician’s assistant program at King’s College and plans to work in the fields of dermatol- ogy and surgery. Emma was a member of the National Hon- or Society, Spanish National Honor Society, Science National Honor Society, and the Science League while working part time throughout high school. She has been riding and showing for nine years and received her first Appaloosa at age 14. She has shown regionally and at the Youth World Show in the past two years. Brooke Kuronya Brooke, also a first time GEAR scholarship recipient, graduated from high school with a 3.9 GPA and plans to attend Northampton Community College for her first two years of college. She then hopes to trans- fer to another school with the goal of studying animal science. Brooke was a member of Na- tional Honor Society and choir and works at the Dale Koehler and Sons Farm store where she helps care for the farm’s ani- mals. Brooke has finished in the top 5 at the Youth World show 5 times and 14 times in the top ten. She has led the nation in events 7 times.