{"id":1110,"date":"2024-11-19T14:29:09","date_gmt":"2024-11-19T14:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/?p=1110"},"modified":"2024-11-19T14:29:09","modified_gmt":"2024-11-19T14:29:09","slug":"kathwari-honors-student-kylin-mcmahon-starts-westconn-fencing-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/2024\/11\/19\/kathwari-honors-student-kylin-mcmahon-starts-westconn-fencing-club\/","title":{"rendered":"Kathwari Honors Student Kylin McMahon starts WestConn Fencing Club"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Kylin

Kylin McMahon<\/p><\/div>\n

First-year Kathwari Honors<\/a> student, Music Performance<\/a> major, and stunt-woman-in-training Kylin McMahon isn\u2019t about sitting still and letting life pass her by. In high school, the pandemic had kept her cooped up and bored, left to watch movies after she\u2019d turned in all her work ahead of time. One fateful night, after watching “Puss and Boots,” McMahon found herself fencing with everything from TV remotes to mops, battling imaginary foes big and small. From that moment on, McMahon knew she just had<\/em>\u00a0to learn this new skill.<\/p>\n

Five years later, McMahon has moved up in the ranks for both saber and foil, two fighting styles distinguished by how the blade is used. In saber, the blade can thrust or slash, and in foil, the blade can only thrust. Additionally, the foil is allowed to hit the opponent\u2019s torso, while the saber can hit the torso, head, and arms, but not the hands or anything below the waist.<\/p>\n

Between the two, saber is considered the more challenging style, and it happens to be where McMahon excels. In fact, she has qualified for the Summer 2025 Nationals in saber. Additionally, her dedication to the sport and positive influence on others earned her the Ralph Sheponi Fencing Scholarship.<\/p>\n

\"Kylin

Kylin McMahon<\/p><\/div>\n

When asked about how fencing impacts her academics and her work in the honors program, she explained, \u201cFencing has taught me patience and discipline, and that\u2019s what academics require, too. For both, I form a goal, I come up with steps for how to move forward in achieving that goal. I feel energized and more motivated to do academic work with the joy I feel from starting and participating in WestConn\u2019s new Fencing Club.\u201d<\/p>\n

McMahon emphasized how important community is in joining the Kathwari Honors Program and creating WestConn\u2019s Fencing Club, which had its first interest meeting in early November. Kathwari Honors Program faculty focus on giving students various opportunities to learn about and prepare for life after WestConn, and McMahon wants to share similar experiences with everyone on campus with the Fencing Club. \u201cFencing is a passion of mine, and I want to share it with others,” she said. “This club will be a safe place for someone to learn for the first time without being tossed into a competition. It\u2019s also an opportunity to learn patience and discipline, and I hope people will learn those attributes and life lessons to take with them wherever they go.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Western Connecticut State University changes lives by providing all students with a high-quality education that fosters their growth as individuals, scholars, professionals and leaders in a global society. Our vision: To be widely recognized as a premier public university with outstanding teachers and scholars who prepare students to contribute to the world in a meaningful way.<\/em><\/p>\n

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<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First-year Kathwari Honors student, Music Performance major, and stunt-woman-in-training Kylin McMahon isn\u2019t about sitting still and letting life pass her by. In high school, the pandemic had kept her cooped up and bored, left to watch movies after she\u2019d turned …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":1111,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[55,48,11,6],"class_list":["post-1110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-success-stories","tag-fencing","tag-kathwari-honors-program","tag-music-education","tag-success-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}