Kingfisher High School graduate Prairie “PK” Kaya was one of five outstanding University of Oklahoma sophomores named recipients of the prestigious 2022 Rita H. Lottinville Prize.

Kaya and the other four recipients were honored during a December luncheon hosted by OU Foundation President and CEO Guy L. Patton and OU Norman Campus Senior Vice President and Provost André-Denis Wright.

Kaya is a theater dramaturgy and professional writing major. Her parents are Shel Wagner and Kurt Kaya of Kingfisher.

Her career aspirations include playwriting, screenwriting, theatrical advocacy and dramaturgical outreach.

The five 2022 Lottinville winners were selected from 633 OU sophomores who maintained a 3.8 grade point average or better their freshman year while taking a minimum of 12 credit hours per semester.

For the first time on record, all of the 2022 honorees were women.

“As Lottinville Prize winners, you are in elite company among an outstanding group of students at the University of Oklahoma,” Patton told the recipients.

“You should be very proud and are to be commended.”

The annual prizes, which include a $1,500 scholarship, were established in 1952 and endowed in 1982 by the late Savoie Lottinville in honor of his wife. A 30year trustee of the OU Foundation, Lottinville was director emeritus of the OU Press and Regents’ Professor Emeritus of History.

A diverse faculty committee interviewed candidates for the prize, with selection based on Lottinville’s criteria of “moral force of character and the willingness to lead and help one’s fellows and stimulate qualities of truth, courage, devotion to duty, sympathy, kindliness unselfishness and fellowship.”

Applicants also submitted brief essays on topics originally selected by Lottinville.