You don't have to talk with Jenicka Hornung long to realize that she is a passionate person. This winter and spring, the recent Brandeis University graduate found a calling that fit in perfectly with three of her biggest passions - sports, her education and creating awareness about a disease that took the life of a close family member.
Along with being a senior captain on the Judges women's tennis team, Hornung served as the Media Outreach Coordinator for the Mass. Breast Cancer Coalition's Against the Tide fund-raiser as her senior internship. Despite graduating last month and earning her credit for the internship, the Waltham resident's passion for the cause has led her to continue to promote the walk, swim and kayak event that will take place Saturday morning at Hopkinton State Park.
``I was looking through a lot of different internships and I thought this one was the best because of the prevention-aspect (of the breast cancer awareness),'' she said. ``Most people are looking for a cure. Why look for a cure when you might be able to prevent it? I also like that there are three different athletic components to suit anyone who might want to participate.''
Hornung, who grew up in Andover, is well-versed in what the Silent Spring Institute of the MBCC claims are the links between pesticides and other chemicals and increasing cancer rates in certain parts of the state. She said her parents were always concerned about such dangers, but she didn't realize why until she arrived at Brandeis and began to do some research on her own.
``My parents never wanted to use a lawn service when I was young,'' she recalled. ``So all of our neighbors had these perfect, green, lush lawns. Ours was OK, not really nice. But they were adamant that they were not going to put any pesticides, or anything that was unnatural, or harmful, down because they knew invariably that it would affect us.
``I didn't understand how important that was,'' she added. ``I used to think it was weird because everybody (in a town like Andover) uses lawn services. It's like a competition to see who has the greenest grass. I see now it should be the other way around. You should want the most natural lawn. The more crabgrass the better.''
Making the connection especially personal for Hornung was that learning about the potential causes of breast cancer made her question her grandmother's recently lost battle with the disease.
``She was dyeing her hair since she was like 18 and prior to 1970 that stuff was carcinogenic,'' Hornung noted. ``I decided to do this in a way to honor her memory and kind of help the Massachusetts community avoid more losses.
``There has to be a reason why the incidence of breast cancer has jumped up from 1 in 22 to 1 in 7 in the past few decades,'' she continued. ``That's almost an epidemic. You can't account for all the breast cancers that are happening through genes alone because it is a pretty rare gene.''
With all these statistics bounding around in her brain for the internship and a research paper on the subject, it might have been difficult for her to concentrate on her tennis career. But she managed to balance that as well as she and former Newton South tennis star Ana Katz teamed up to form one of the top-ranked Division III doubles teams in New England.
Hornung, who is best friends and roommates with Katz, said the two plan to continue their tennis connection on the USTA circuit now that Hornung has graduated and Katz still has one year to go with the Judges.
``We are going to try to do doubles there to keep up Ana's doubles play,'' Hornung said. ``Doubles is definitely my forte. It is much more fun because the team component is huge. It is great to pick your partner up when she is down and get her fired up.''
Getting fired up about something that Hornung cares about doesn't seem to be much of an issue for her. She has recruited New England Sports Network anchor Kathryn Tappen, whom Hornung worked for as an intern, as the Against the Tide's spokesperson and said she intends to do the walk portion of the event - and perhaps the kayak - on Saturday.
``I have been doing athletics my whole life,'' she said, ``and was a college tennis player at Brandeis, so I would like to think I am in decent enough shape to do it.''
But Hornung stressed that the event is meant to be more inviting than challenging. There are both fun and competitive swim portions and she said on-site registration will be available that morning.
``You can do one or all three of the events for a minimum donation of 150 dollars,'' she recited from her own press release. ``If you want to come down and don't want to participate, then come and cheer us on. If you want to participate last-minute, no problem.''
For more information on the Against the Tide event in Hopkinton on Saturday, or the Aug. 18 event in Brewster - or to sponsor a participant such as Hornung - go to the Mass. Breast Cancer Coalition's Web site www.mbcc.org/swim.
