Walker College Foundation Executive Director Holly Trawick began horse riding when she was five years old. Now there’s no limit to where she might go. 

Words by Suzie Walton | Image by Blakeney Clouse 

Always fashionably dressed, Holly Trawick sits comfortably in a leather chair drinking coffee as she shares stories about the early years of her life. Her shoes, beautiful leopard print high heels trimmed in red, lie neatly on the floor near her desk. 

“I love shoes,” she laughs, eyeing the discarded heels. “I’m sure I have way too many pairs, but as beautiful as those are, they hurt my feet.” 

Holly’s childhood was an idyllic one, full of carefree, summer days riding her bike around the Miami, Florida, subdivision where she grew up.Her family’s comfortable, one-story home had a pool, tennis court, and a fenced backyard boasting fruit trees and green grass. Unlike the other homes, however, the backyard also held rabbits, chickens, and a pony. 

Holly recalls those days with a certain fond nostalgia. “We traveled all around the neighborhood without worrying about checking in with our parents,” she says. “Some days, I rode my pony across several neighborhood blocks to my best friend’s house.” 

The pony, she explains, was a gift to her father, a medical doctor, from one of his patients. The rabbits were on exhibit every year in the Dade County Fair. The chickens were an Easter gift from her mother.

“Every so often, a chicken would go missing,” Holly says, smiling. “And it wasn’t until about 10 years ago that my mother told me we ate those chickens. I was shocked! I always thought some wild animal in a Miami neighborhood was getting in the fence and taking them away.”

When Holly was 12 years old, her dad retired from his medical practice and the family moved to Fayette, Alabama, her mother’s hometown. “We visited my grandparents every year, and I had the wonderful experience of their farm as a child,” Holly says. “I was the only kid in my class who had gathered eggs and milked a cow. I brought a cotton stalk home for Show-and-Tell. When we moved to Fayette, it was quite a life change. We had to sell my pony. To make it better, my parents promised to buy a horse for me. Sold!” 

Holly and her sister each had a horse and would often saddle them up and ride four miles into downtown Fayette. “We went through Jack’s drive-through on our horses,” she remembers. “We also rode them to our grandparents’ house, which involved crossing a bridge over the Sipsey River. That was quite an adventure.” 

After high school, Holly earned a bachelor’s degree from The University of Alabama and a master’s from UAB, both in communications. Her love for horses endured beyond college graduation, even during a stint working in Memphis.

Eventually Holly returned to Alabama and settled in Tuscaloosa, where she showed racking and Tennessee Walking Horses. “Horses had been a part of my life since I was five years old,” she says. “When I moved to Jasper, I closed that door. We all have a book of life with many different chapters. Before I moved here, I worked with horses, drove a tractor, and mended fences, but there are no horses in my life anymore—this is a new chapter.” 

When Holly moved to Jasper in 2006, she had been working at Bevill State Community College and commuting from Tuscaloosa for four years, during which time she met many people and wore many hats. Included in her repertoire were skills in graphic design, marketing, and public relations. “Eventually I realized I could fit in in Jasper, and the move made sense to me. I never thought I would live in a small town again,” she adds. “It’s funny how the things you don’t appreciate about a small town when you’re young are exactly what draw you back when you’re older.”

Holly’s work now revolves around students. Her position as Executive Director of the Walker College Foundation and her mission to help those foundation scholars succeed have become a major part of her life. “I have the best job ever,” Holly says. “These students are my kids. I care about their futures. They have dreams just like we did at their age, and we are here to help them reach those dreams.”

When Holly isn’t working with her scholars, she teaches at UAB and volunteers. She also loves to travel and has visited more than 20 countries on five continents. “I love people and enjoy seeing and learning how cultures are similar and different all over the world,” she says. “I bring a piece of each country home with me in a charm (she has a necklace with charms from every country she’s visited) and a rock. And, I have a 13-year-old niece I have already introduced to the love of travel. I hope we will share some of these amazing adventures together.”

At home, Holly volunteers in the community by serving on several non-profit boards and committees. As a member of the Rotary Club of Jasper, ARC of Walker County, and Friends of Jasper Main Street, she offers her time and talents wherever she can. This community has become her extended family. 

“I have lived in Jasper now longer than I have anywhere else,” Holly says, “and I have had friends here longer than I have had friends anywhere else. Once I got involved and put my time and heart into this community, Jasper became my home. I love it here.” 78