Taylor Hill Receives North Carolina Student Leadership Award in STEM
When it comes to schoolwork, students will occasionally ask the question: Will I use this in the real world? But Taylor Hill, a student at the STEM Academy at Greene Central High School in Snow Hill, NC, is only interested in exploring projects that have real-world applications.
“The whole goal of the STEM Academy is to challenge yourself to do what’s out of ordinary,” Hill said. “Instead of sitting down and taking a test, you are creating something or solving a problem.”
Taylor Hill received the STEM Student Leadership Award from the North Carolina Science, Mathematics, and Technology Education Center. She will be recognized in Raleigh at the annual SMT Celebration on April 28, 2018.
“She wants to have an impact on society,” said Jose Garcia, the STEM director at Greene County Schools. “She brings students together who usually don’t speak to one another to pull together and create the best project they can. She was in a group that presented STEM to a middle school and the students walked away saying they want to do that. That’s how I know she is having an impact.”
In the first weeks of the school year, Hill was challenged with building an emergency shelter that slept four people in a natural disaster.
“What STEM does is that once you think you have the answer you still have to use creative thinking,” said Hill. “It helps you make it better.”
Hill is interested in pursuing a bachelor’s degree in nursing and a career in trauma nursing. Hill said that STEM helped her find that achieving your goals is not always a straightforward path, that sometimes you have to use what resources are available.