Name: Kai Killian
State: Pennsylvania
High School: Lower Dauphin High School
College: Indiana University

Field hockey in its absolute essence is a core part of my life. It has taught me discipline, patience, and above all it honed my work ethic.

Outside of field hockey I am an AP student, a current employee at a veterinary clinic (an internship granted by my school), and am currently working on an independent study of Cytochrome p450 for a full body essay by the end of the year.

I think overall my passion for these things would be useless without the time management field hockey has required for me over the years with after school practices and training. For college I have committed to Indiana University, a D1 Big Ten school.

I chose this school not only because of the potential I saw in the team’s play, but the environment the coaches and players have created. They created a hard-working group of girls that strive to do their greatest on and off the field, and that is what I dreamed to have as teammates.

As well as I chose mainly for the academics, I want to be a veterinarian. To do this I needed a team that would be very supportive of prioritizing studies, and Indiana has a good biology program.

Translating this from field hockey can stem from my retired high school coach, Linda Kreiser. She is one of my biggest inspirations in life, and whenever I would get frustrated on or off the field I could take a breath and tell myself “What would she tell me” or “just make her proud”.

This woman means the world to me more than anyone would ever know, how hard she has worked and pushed through to pave a path for so many female athletes. Everything I do on or off the field in some way stems from her as my idol, whenever things get tough I just have to think of her encouragement through the years and I am back on track.

Field hockey means the world to me, not only as a sport, but as a community. I have met so many people across the country. It has opened me up out of my shell and made me more confident.

This past year I have never been more determined to do well in my sport and my academics for my future career. I have had the honor to be named co-commonwealth player of the year, an All American, PA all region first team, Mid-Penn Conference All Star first team, and more.

These awards show my dedication to my sport, and I believe I am equally translating that into my academics as stated before. I intend to make the people that have gotten me this far proud, my parents, my coaches, my teammates, etc.

Field Hockey has been my gateway to gain confidence and do things off the field I thought I could not do. I will become a veterinarian, I will achieve academic excellence, and I will make them proud.

Finally I will continue to spread field hockey wherever I go, for the love of the game.

This post is an unedited piece written by Kai Killian. She is participating in the 2025 Dr. Judith Benscoter Female Athlete Scholarship contest. To vote for her, please purchase a $2.99 one-time membership and cast your ballot. You may also vote for her video on our Instagram account. The scholarship winner will be determined by most votes (likes) on Instagram video and the most votes cast on the candidate’s essay writing.

Voting runs from March 13-16. Winners will be announced March 17.