When Nicole Pruchnik, a successful collegiate gymnast going into her junior year at Southern Connecticut State University, started out at Kaleidoscope of Dance and Gymnastics as a four-year-old, she wasn’t too into the “dance” part of her visits there.

“I didn’t like dance,” said Pruchnik from inside the Wareham gym a few weeks ago prior to one of her summer workouts there. “My mom (Carolyn) got sick and tired of me crying every time.”

So instead of dance, the Pruchniks, who are from Rochester, chose to let Nicole focus on gymnastics, and since then, she’s gone on to not only make the NCAA Division II squad at SCSU, but to win the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Rookie of the Year honors in her freshman year, as well as to qualify for the United States of American Gymnastics Nationals competition two years in a row.

For the few months since school’s been out of session, Pruchnik has spent most of her time working a full-time job in the area, but she’s also been working out at Kaleidoscope in preparation for next year’s gymnastics season at SCSU. Not only has she been working and working out, but she’s also spent time volunteering in local communities, including some time working with younger gymnasts at Kaleidoscope.

“It was good—it was fun,” said Pruchnik of a recent volunteer session at Kaleidoscope, noting that though she’s not necessarily the caliber of gymnast she always dreamt of being, many of the girls at Kaleidoscope look up to her. “They all seem to know who I am. I’m like the girl that I used to look up to. I’m turning into the girl I wanted to be. Even though I’m not the gymnast that I necessarily i wanted to be, not an Olympian and not this full ride D-I athlete, I’m just a D-II gymnast—these girls, it doesn’t really matter to them.”

Not only has Pruchnik spent time volunteering at the gym, but she’s also traveled to number of local schools with her mother Carolyn with a program that teaches kids how to be responsible with money. She’s also done volunteer-work with her college gymnastics team in the New Haven area of Connecticut helping underprivileged students, working at soup kitchens, and even cleaning up a skate park there which had fallen under disrepair.

“Everything is geared at making the community a better place,” said Pruchnik. “For (her and her teammates), it’s good to see that—most of us don’t know what it’s like to not have whatever you want. Not so say I get everything I want, but I grew up in Rochester in this perfect little town where nothing bad ever really happens.”

An Athletic Training major, Pruchnik plans to move “down south” and become an athletic trainer, but she’ll need to finish at SCSU first, and has plans to get a Master’s Degree in a field related to athletic training. As a student at Old Rochester Regional High School, she volunteered with the athletic trainers there, and she does the same at SCSU.

“I definitely want to be involved with sports,” she said. “That’s what I want to do.”

Pruchnik credited her coaches, including Miss Michelle (Femino) and Miss Erin (Bosanquet) at Kaleidoscope for helping her every step of the way, saying that she enjoys working out there during the summer because even though they know her so well, they still help her to improve, even as a collegiate gymnast.

“They can see the little things that I’m doing wrong and point them out to me,” she said, saying that she also feels lucky to have a gym so close to home, while some of her collegiate teammates have to travel up to an hour-and-a-half just to practice during the summer.

“It’s a great place,” she said. “I was like everyone’s guinea pig—I’ve gone through everything here.”