A New Target to Hit: Kie Kababik Makes His Mark in Digital Marketing

Written by Monica VanDerWeide, ’95

When Kie Kababik, ’18, joined the Hillsdale College shotgun team as a freshman in 2013, he joined a team fresh off its first Division III national championship the previous year. Over the next five years, Kababik played an important role in the team repeating that success on a national stage, solidifying Hillsdale’s standing as a competitive force in the collegiate shooting sports world. Yet the five national championships and his individual achievements represent only a part of why coming to Hillsdale was “the best choice I’ve ever made.”

“I was initially drawn to Hillsdale because of the shotgun team,” he said. “But once I learned about the mission of the College, it was an easy decision to attend.”

A marketing major hailing from Delaware, Kababik started shooting trap with his family at the age of 12. By his junior year of high school, he was competing in tournaments around the country, about the same time he started looking into Hillsdale.

Although the Halter Center was just starting to develop in Kababik’s first year, the members of the shotgun team had already made a bold entrance into the sport with their first national championship in 2012. “Winning five consecutive national championships during my five years at Hillsdale was definitely a highlight,” Kababik said. “My proudest moment, though, was the year we had the second-highest team score across all divisions–I, II, and III. Many of those teams had 50 or more members, and we had only ten.”

Individually, Kababik won the combined American events at nationals one year, shooting his first perfect score in American skeet. “It was the culmination of all the hard work and practice we had done as a team,” he said, “as well as the marriage of something I’d been doing since I was 12 (trap) with something I had only just started excelling in (skeet).”

Although the shooting sports, at least from the outside, tend to be an individualistic sport, Kababik cherished the sense of community he gained from being a part of the team. “When you join the team, you become a part of that community,” he said. “It’s the same thing at Hillsdale College; we work closely together to pursue the mission and to accomplish our goals.”

As a student, Kababik worked closely with Professor of Marketing Susan King to accomplish his goal of earning a degree in marketing. “She was a great resource in showing me how expansive of a field marketing can be,” he said. He especially appreciated the lessons in real-world application he learned through the Marketing Research course, in which senior marketing majors take on a local business as a “client.” He gained additional real-world digital marketing experience through a summer internship with Krieghoff International, a firearms company. “I definitely recommend marketing majors complete an internship,” he said.

Following graduation, Kababik and his wife, Alexis Fink, ’17, moved to Washington, D.C., where he accepted a job with the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action. Working for about two years as an executive assistant, he then transitioned to the role of web content manager. But after the COVID-19 pandemic, Kababik and his wife decided it was time for a change. They moved to southern Florida where Kababik took a job as the digital marketing manager for a sports bar chain. “I wore a lot of hats, and I learned what I really enjoy doing in marketing,” he said. That led to his current role as digital marketing manager for AutoNation, where he runs all after-sale digital advertising for the company’s 280 stores.

Although Kababik no longer shoots competitively or for leisure, he still maintains close ties to Hillsdale’s shooting sports program. “My closest friends are from the team,” he said. “We don’t see each other often, but the bonds are still strong.” He is proud of the growth of the shooting sports at Hillsdale. “When I was a freshman, the Halter Center had a pavilion and a few trap fields,” he said. “Now it’s second to none. I was able to expand my knowledge in all facets of shooting sports through Hillsdale’s program, which gives students the ability to thrive and flourish.”

And it wasn’t just the shooting sports that allowed Kababik to thrive and flourish, but all aspects of the College. “Coming to Hillsdale was the best choice I’ve ever made,” he said. “I believe it’s the best place for getting young men and women ready for the transition to the work force and for making the world a better place, by teaching self-governance. It shaped me into the person I am today.”

Monica VanDerWeide is Director of Marketing Content for Hillsdale College. She graduated from Hillsdale in 1995 with a degree in English and German.

Published in May 2024