Taylor Collins Wins $10,000 Nordstrom Scholarship
While last week was certainly not the best for South River High School this week got off to a much better start to celebrate the achievements of Taylor Collins who was selected as the first of five recipients of a $10,000 scholarship from Nordstrom.
Students arriving for a last period English class looked puzzled when their classroom was overtaken by the media, but it all became clear as Jerzy Romanowski, the Diversity Affairs Director from Nordstrom bounded in the room with an over sized check for a very surprised Taylor Collins–and a bunch of cupcakes for the rest of the class.
“They told us they were doing a documentary in this room and I was like, “OK,‟ ” said Taylor, who was overcome with emotion as he received a huge check in front of his cheering classmates. “Then I saw all these people come in and I saw the people from Nordstrom, and I was like “Oh, my God.‟ It’s just incredible.”
Joining in the celebration were Taylor’s parents ,his robotics mentor David Cruz, technology teacher Ryan Sackett (who nominated Taylor for the award), school administrators, community leaders and several executives from Nordstrom both here in Annapolis and from their Headquarters in Seattle.
Taylor was the co-captain of the robotics team last year, and serves as the captain this year. Even more remarkable, Taylor has Tourette’s Syndrome which presented some challenges along the way. Taylor quipped that he “made it with all of my fingers” as his mentor, said there was never any doubt. Mr. Sackett commented, “Taylor is in his element working with robotics or in shop and it really seems to have an effect on his Tourette’s.”
Taylor is presently looking for schools where he can spend his $10,000 and topping the list is Rochester Institute of Technology. Congratulations Taylor for a job well done!