Maya Mulleneaux ’17

I had a leap of faith on my own and I struggled for a long time, and I made it work. I’m thankful and lucky for everyone I had around me.

Maya Mulleneaux ’17

Maya has always loved horses. At Mid-Pen, she was a competitive horseback rider.

 “I knew I wanted to work with horses. I wanted to ride, that’s all I wanted to do,” she said. She graduated from Mid-Pen in 2017 and went on to spend one year at Rocky Mountain College in Billings, MT, to study horse training.

“I didn’t like the program. After my first semester, I really started losing motivation.” Her parents encouraged her to complete the year. While Maya did finish the academic year, she said it also pushed her to truly understand that she simply didn’t like school.

Maya left college, returned to California for a brief time, and ultimately moved back to Billings to pursue her passion: training horses and building her own business. Her first break came when a friend asked her to train a horse.

Maya trains two to four client horses at a time and has her own horse as well. She also works for a local hospital that provides her a steady paycheck.

“I’m happy!” she said with a smile. “There are certain skills you need to go to college for. I had a leap of faith on my own and I struggled for a long time, and I made it work. I’m thankful and lucky for everyone I had around me.”

Maya Mulleneaux ’17 participated in Mid-Pen's virtual roundtable, Alternative Paths: Life after Mid-Pen, on Thursday, April 23, 2020.