Mrs. Vicki Stoesen did not have to look far for the last author visit of the 2024-25 school year. Kendra Collier, a graduating senior, shared her first published book on Tuesday, May 6 to our kindergarten and first grade students.
Kendra’s book — titled, “Amber’s Equestrian Alphabet” — served as her senior project. Now, after all the time and effort put in, Kendra is thrilled to have the finished product in hand.
“Once my book was published, I felt very proud,” Kendra said. “It felt very nice to finally have my hard work put into the world, and it really has been such an amazing experience sharing it with children.”
The inspiration behind the book was Kendra’s own passion for horses. In fact, her senior superlative was “most likely to be somewhere with horses.”
While the book idea spun as a result of her senior project, Kendra stressed there was much more significance in mind.
“The main goal for my book was to inspire young children to love horses and hopefully get them into horseback riding,” Kendra said.
Kendra began the production process by researching other children’s books. Most importantly, she looked into ways to keep the child’s attention throughout the entire book. That is why Kendra landed on the final version of having the book rhyme and with the stellar conclusion featuring horse jokes. Upon completion of the storyline, Kendra worked with an illustrator to help make the book come alive.
Investing a lot of time into this project was not foreign to Kendra, though. Kendra is a standout LCA student during her time as a Lion. At high school graduation, she had earned over $1 million in scholarships and was accepted to 27 colleges/universities.
Auburn University, Spelman College, the University of South Carolina and others were among the various offers. Ultimately, Kendra chose Samford University in Alabama as the next place to learn and grow as a student. Her intended major is Environmental Science while she considers pursuing a minor in Marine Biology or Business.
“I hope that younger students are inspired to love animals and horses as much as I do. ”
This next chapter cannot start soon enough for Kendra.
“I am very excited to graduate!” Kendra said in the days leading up to her high school graduation. “Although I will miss everyone from LCA and my family when I go off to college, I am ready to start this new journey in my life!”
Kendra’s time as an LCA student may be over. However, her time as an author may just be starting. She aspires to work on another book sometime in the future.
No definite plan is set as of yet, but there is an idea.
Nevertheless, Kendra is hopeful that current LCA students — as well as any other students who read her book — will be inspired in more ways than one when reading her latest project.
“I hope that younger students are inspired to love animals and horses as much as I do. For those who don’t know their ABC’s, it can help teach the alphabet to them,” Kendra said. “Although, for those who do know the alphabet, it is a great way for them to learn about basic horse knowledge.”
