(Pictured above: Kylie Studzinski with her parents at HKHS Senior Awards Night)

Haddam-Killingworth senior Kylie Studzinski is this year’s recipient of the Killingworth Ambulance Association scholarship, and she is as rare as she is deserving.

Honored at Wednesday’s Senior Awards Night at Haddam-Killingworth High School, Kylie is the first lone scholarship winner in recent memory for the KAA, which awarded 18 the previous four years – including six in 2021.

But Kylie Studzinski deserves to stand alone.

An accomplished student, she received four scholarships Wednesday –including the KAA award – and will attend the University of Delaware this fall where she plans to major in neuroscience.

“I have a thorough interest in how neurotransmitters contribute to how humans act the way they do,” she said in her application essay, “and I intend on getting my questions answered through extensive research. I hope that in my undergraduate years I can do bench-level research and work my way up to clinical research. This will serve me well for a career in medicine.”

Killingworth Ambulance Association scholarships are granted annually and are narrow in scope. Recipients must meet four criteria: 1) They must be Killingworth residents, 2) attend a two-or-four-year college the following fall, 3) plan to major in the medical, emergency services or allied fields and carry a GPA of 3.0 or higher.

Kylie Studzinski checked all of those boxes.

In addition to a superior academic record, she was involved in cross country for four years and participated in indoor and outdoor track, running the 800, mile and two-mile races. She also logged 80 hours of community service — volunteering to work at vacation Bible school, assisting with cross-country meets and banquets at the H-K Middle School and working with the Hartford Kids Christmas organization.

But that’s not all.

She was also active in a youth coalition group called IGNITE, which specializes in drug prevention programs but is broader in scope – with Kylie this past winter organizing a Donation Day for the St. Vincent De Paul homeless shelter in Middletown and the Haddam Community Closet. A member of the group the past three years, she is co-president.

Now her focus is on her next four years of education … except in Kylie’s case, it’s five.

“Once I enter my senior year of college,” she said, “I will apply for the 4 + 1 program, where I can get my masters degree in only one year. I am also hoping to do as much lab research as I can while working toward my undergraduate degree to further prepare me for schooling after that.”

Studzinski’s achievement marks the third time in the past four years that KAA scholarships have gone to an all-female class. There were six in 2019, and two one year later. Eleven of the past 14 recipients have been females, with last year’s class that included Thomas Perry, Ryan Luther and Sam Luther, breaking the run.