Posts Tagged ‘Kayden Manning’

PROFILE: No Sophomore Slump for Kayden Manning

A hush fell over the entire Gathering Place. An exasperated crowd waited in anticipation as the called chose another numbered ball. “B7,” he said. As the number of excited faces grew, they were all squashed when the tall, brunette girl in the back yelled “BINGO!” Thus ended sophomore Kayden Manning’s favorite activity on campus, Bingo.

“Crap! I was so close,”  she said. “I only won once this time!” The prize she was referring to was a free meal from McDonald’s. “That’s more than you came with!” her roommate, Megan McGregor, said, “You complain like this every time.”

Manning lives in Vernon, Vt., with her parents, Norma and Wayne, and her three siblings: Helen, 16, Ethan, 14, and Abigail, 13. She is a 19-year-old International Leadership Studies major, with a minor in Asian Studies. In her free time, she said she likes to sleep and do anything that has to do with music. She is in the Women’s Choir and plays clarinet in the Symphonic Wind Ensemble. She also volunteers at Betsy Mills, in a classroom with 3- and 4-year olds. “The little girls always want me to braid their hair,” she said” but sometimes they try to braid mine and it hurts.”

Manning’s most memorable moment from college so far was a rafting trip her freshman year. “It was a real bonding experience for me and my roommate. We met our first friend, Nicole Holstein, there and all got thrown into a “Class 4” rapid. She said if she could change anything about Marietta, she would move it closer to Vermont. “I want to be able to go home more often,” she added.

The biggest difference between Vermont and Ohio, she said, is the ideological diversity. “Like, there are actually Republicans here,” she quipped. She also said that the seasons are a little bit different in Ohio. “How it can snow and be sunny and 50 degrees in the same day is beyond me,” she concluded.

EDITOR’S NOTE:  This article is by Joe Dillon, a Media Writing Two student at Marietta College.  If you are interested in writing for Writing on the Mall, send an e-mail to Patrick_H@writingonthemall.net.