2023 Dan L. Heinlen Award

After high school, I worked as a horse groom for stables in other parts of the country. It’s difficult work, and in the horse show industry, the owners didn’t always make decisions in the horses’ best interests. I left my job and enrolled at Ohio State Newark. The quality of the education was so good, and the experiences so diverse — from competing on the riding team, to doing theater to studying abroad — that it set the stage for a whole different phase in my life and prepared me for law school and my career. I now do national litigation work as a partner in a litigation boutique.

I was raised by a single mom on a family farm. Due to our limited income, I received federal and state grants that covered the cost of tuition, making college possible for me. I want to ensure that current students have the same level of support, so they can experience the resources and advantages of an Ohio State education.

When I learned that state and federal grants no longer covered the full cost of tuition for students in financial need at regional campuses, I was concerned. I also discovered that students on the main campus had access to more funding than those on regional campuses. That began a collaborative push to get the matter addressed. It took several years, but this fall, students on regional campuses with the highest level of financial need will receive grants that cover the full cost of tuition, just as those on main campus do, and just as I did as a student. I have tried to do my own small part through funding scholarships, as well.

Several years ago, I took over Grenoble Stables, the farm started by my grandmother and continued by my mom. I now have 30 horses and run the riding school. It’s my passion to educate future generations about how to care for horses and how to deal with horses in the most humane way possible.