She's 18 years old and assistant manager of the Coeur d'Alene Skeet and Trap Club.

In Larkin Henkel's own words, "I'm a girl in a man's job."

She's also the winner of the Girl Scouts of America's Gold Award - an honor achieved by only 5 percent of all scouts.

And when she's not shooting, Henkel attends North Idaho College and, well, teaches others how to shoot, too.

So, what's the draw?

"It's my sport and I'm good at it," she said. "It's a unique sport and there aren't nearly as many women in it as there should be. Besides, it's important to challenge myself with harder things, so I can grow as a person. I like it that it's more difficult to shoot at a moving target."

Larkin started with Girl Scouts when she was in first grade, loving it when they told her she was capable of doing anything she wanted. As she got older, she started mentoring younger scouts.

At 10, she learned to shoot. She'd never wanted to get involved in sports, but claims her dad was insistent about it. It didn't take long until she was hooked.

When she decided to compete for the Girl Scouts Gold Award, it was only natural for her to combine her two favorite things - Girl Scouts and shooting - to come up with a project proposal. She decided to establish a shooting program at Lake City High School, where she was then a student.

"My focus was on women gaining self-confidence and empowerment through marksmanship and clay target shooting," she said. Her program - Aim for Empowerment - came on line in 2012 after 137 hours of planning and implementation.

"At first, the Girl Scouts wanted me to design a different project," she said. "They didn't think there'd be enough interest in my idea and wanted me to focus on gun safety."

As part of her Gold Award, Larkin ended up creating four pages of rules for shotgun-shooting safety checkpoints for Girl Scouts USA.

Then she was off and running on her team concept.

"I started the first team at Lake City High School. It was co-ed and I recruited students via posters and announcements. There were six students in all - the school wanted it to be safety oriented and I agreed." In its second year, the number of participants doubled.

Most of her team members had no previous shooting experience. Guns were not permitted on school premises and students had to take their guns directly to the club. If a team member didn't own a gun, the Coeur d'Alene Skeet and Trap Club provided them with one.

Then Larkin got her group connected up with the Scholastic Clay Target Program. "If you are in the college-age-and-under group," she said, "in order to compete at registered events, you must be part of the SCTP program."

During the 2012 team competition, Larkin herself got the "High Female for the State of Idaho" in skeet, trap and five-stand. Her team, she'll proudly tell you, "all scored more than 100 out of 150, and, in the end, they felt comfortable shooting with people they'd never shot with before and that's a big thing."

For Larkin, her project was about empowerment: girls and women gaining confidence. The positive changes apparent in her team members excited her - so much so that she started a similar club when she got to NIC with an initial membership of six. Today she is coaching both teams and taking both to sanctioned competitions.

So, for the uninitiated, what exactly is it that Larkin does that's so intriguing?

"I shoot at little orange things that fly through the air," she said, grinning. "The object is to destroy the target. In skeet, the targets are crossing and, in trap, they're flying away from you. In both skeet and trap, you have a general idea where the target is going. Not so with five-stand which has a different presentation and a changing venue."

Her gun is a Baretta 682 Super Sporting, over and under break action.

"I started on a pump and thought it was the coolest thing ever," she said. "I just loved the sound of it."

She shoots about five to 15 rounds a week. Her coaches these days are her dad and a few skeet club members. She said she was starting to realize on her own how to improve as well.

After concentrating on political science at NIC, she plans to pursue a criminal justice degree at a four-year college, hopefully on a shooting scholarship. Her goal is to become an activist and/or lobbyist for women's rights.

Larkin Henkel is a major-league cheerleader when it comes to advocating life challenges.

"We do shooting lessons at the club and I love to teach new people," she said. "Try it. Just try something new and step out of your comfort zone."