Catching up with Kristen Kiraly
Kristen Kiraly has been doing quite well for herself since graduating from Huntington High School in 2005. She carried a double major in English and educational studies en route to a bachelor’s degree at Colgate University and today works at the press desk for Moody’s Investors Service in Manhattan.
Remembered by Huntington faculty members as bright, inquisitive, articulate, well-prepared and an all-around good person, Ms. Kiraly has been living in New York City since last October. She’s currently in the process of applying to graduate schools for journalism and plans to focus specifically on investigative journalism. She hopes to begin grad school in the fall of 2011.
Ms. Kiraly’s office at Moody’s is located at 7 World Trade Center. “In this position, I basically deal with every press release that Moody’s publishes,” she said.
Practical considerations were behind the decision to carry a double major in college. “I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do once I graduated, but I knew that these majors would help me,” Ms. Kiraly said. She compiled some impressive academic credentials in college, including being the recipient of the Dean’s Award for Academic Success in 2009.
Very Active on Campus
“While at Colgate, I tried to be as involved as I could be while still being able to keep up with the demanding course load,” Ms. Kiraly said. “My senior year I revitalized the Thurber Educational Society and I became its president. This group brings in speakers and holds talks to raise awareness of social and educational issues around the world. I brought in the first-ever guest speaker, who was the principal of a very unique alternative high school in central New York.
The Huntington alum also landed a position as a sports writer for the Oneida Daily Dispatch. “I attended high school soccer and football games and track meets and wrote articles for this county-wide newspaper,” Ms. Kiraly said.
Another activity involved being a member of Pet Pals, which required traveling to Canastota once a week to volunteer providing typical daily care of the animals there. Ms. Kiraly was also a team rep on Colgate’s Student Athletic Advisory Committee, acting as a liaison between the Division I teams and administration.
Following her sophomore and junior years, Ms. Kiraly was a full-time summer intern at Flushing Savings Bank, working in the marketing, compliance, business banking and money management departments. “It was a great experience, and offered me insight into a field I wasn’t directly studying at school,” she said.
The spring semester during her junior year was extended by more than a month when Ms. Kiraly participated in an extended class that brought her and other Colgate students enrolled in the course to Denmark to live and study. “It was an incredible experience,” she said. “We lived with Danish families, and were able to travel throughout the entire country while meeting and speaking with influential members of the Danish society.”
College Athletic Experience
It wasn’t all classes and studying for Ms. Kiraly at Colgate. She also ran on the school’s NCAA Division I cross country and indoor and outdoor track and field teams for four years.
That she was on a college cross country team might come as a surprise to some in her hometown because Ms. Kiraly won three varsity soccer letters at Huntington, “but I knew that running cross country at Colgate would help my track performances,” she said. Freshman year was very difficult for me because I had never done the mileage that was expected of me on a daily basis. But sophomore year was my break-through season. We hosted the Patriot League Championships on our course - one of the most difficult in the Northeast because of the very steep hills.”
Ms. Kiraly placed eighth out of 82 runners in championship race, ahead of every other Colgate competitor, earning a spot All-Patriot League’s second team. “Other coaches had no idea who I was coming out of the woods and into the last 800m stretch of that race,” she said. The showing was an almost breathtaking improvement over her freshman season when she placed 77th in a field of 86 runners.
All-ECAC Honors
Following her surprising finish in the Patriot League Championships, Ms. Kiraly and Colgate raced in the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championships at Van Cortlandt Park in New York City. It’s another very difficult course, but the Huntington grad mastered it, crossing the line third out of 166 runners in a personal all-time best time of 18.34. Her strong finish, which resulted in All-ECAC honors, helped Colgate win the team title.
“My track season was also very successful that year, as well as my freshman year,” Ms. Kiraly recently recalled. “I mainly ran the 800m, 1000m, 1500m, and 4 x 800m races. I was the anchor of the 4 x 800m team that earned third place at Patriot Championships in 2007. I ran the first 400m of the race in 60 seconds flat, which I still don’t hear the end of because that is way too fast to go out in!”
Ms. Kiraly captained Colgate’s cross country and indoor and outdoor track teams during her junior and senior years. “Unfortunately, during my junior year I got a stress fracture in my femur, in my hip, and I was out on crutches for seven months,” she said. “However, I still went to all of the practices and meets to support my team and to be the best captain that I could be. Again in my senior year, I got a stress fracture in my tibia. Knowing that it was my last season, I hid that tiny fact from my coaches and finished the rest of my season, which was another couple of months.
Her last race at West Point in the Patriot League Championships “was definitely bittersweet,” Ms. Kiraly said. “I had wished to do so much more in my last two years, so it was hard to end on that note, but the entire experience was so rewarding. My team was named an Academic All-American team all four years.”
Ran a Marathon
If you happened to miss it, track was not only a huge part of Ms. Kiraly’s college experience, but it’s also “a huge part of who I am,” she said. “Once I graduated Colgate, I joined Team in Training, which is an endurance team that raises funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.”
This past March, Ms. Kiraly ran in the New York City half-marathon, her longest race ever up to that point. Then, on May 2, she completed the New Jersey Marathon, all 26.2 miles of it, as a member of Team in Training. “The 95 degree heat was a challenge, but I very happily crossed the finish line in 3 hours and 57 minutes, all while raising $2,625,” she said.
Obviously not one to sit still for very long, Ms. Kiraly has joined Moody’s co-ed soccer team and also plays in a New York City kickball league.
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