Yelm High School seniors Taliah Boyd, Alex Hurd and Taylor Curzon are no strangers to academic achievement.
But when they received word last month that they were going to be nominated for the 2025 United States Presidential Scholar program, one of the nation’s highest honors for high school students, they were in shock and awe.
Hurd and Curzon were nominated in the general component category, while Boyd was nominated in the careers and technical education (CTE) category. While only 161 candidates nationwide get to hold the title of U.S. Presidential Scholar each year, the three students expressed their gratitude for even being considered for the program.
“It was definitely amazing to know that my fellow peers who applied from Yelm also got in. I’ve worked with these students forever, and to know that the work paid off and that we’re getting recognition was really cool,” Boyd said.
Nicole Mathis, YHS College and Career Center specialist, helped the three students with the process of becoming a nominee. Each student gave her their resume including academic achievements and extracurricular activities in November, and they received notice of their acceptance by the state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction in December.
Hurd was recommended by Curzon for the general component category and was humbled that so many people helped him earn the nomination.
“I thought it was very generous and very kind because I think we both know a lot of good candidates that could qualify for that,” Hurd said. “I felt special, and I was very grateful that she would nominate me for that.”
Curzon said she was honored to be nominated alongside two of her friends, as she called Boyd her best friend and said she has known Hurd since they were in fourth grade.
“It’s a really big deal. I feel like GPA-wise I’m maybe not the strongest person in our school, but I think that I’m one of the more well-rounded individuals at our school,” she said. “I think that I represent a lot of what Yelm wants in a student. I was really excited to hear that I and Taliah and Alex all made it through.”
Boyd said she thinks she was nominated because of her community service hours with the Team Unified basketball and soccer teams as YHS, as well as her achievements in the Careers in Education program. She placed second at the 2024 Educators Rising National Conference in Washington DC in the job interview category.
“I love to do a lot of things that are going to help the school and students because I’m really into becoming a teacher and bettering students’ futures,” Boyd said.
Hurd, a Running Start student at South Puget Sound Community College, said he earned the nomination due to being on the SPSCC President’s List and was also involved in the Careers and Education program as a junior. He competed in the state championships in cross country in two consecutive years and is a varsity letter in cross country and track and field.
“I’m hoping to go to the University of Washington or Washington State University. I’m hoping to get all of my prerequisites done so I can get into a school of engineering and become an electrical engineer,” Hurd said.
Curzon is another Running Start student who is also involved in FFA, the National Honor Society and Associated Student Body. She had actually been talking with Mathis for a year and a half about the U.S. Presidential Scholars program. Curzon has more than 200 community service hours through her extracurricular activities and is working on undergraduate research while at SPSCC.
“My goal right now is to use Microsoft artificial intelligence, and I’m going to essentially feed it a bunch of data on meteorites and asteroids, and I want to see what materials from those that we can use to replace computer parts,” Curzon said. “I want to go to a four-year college, and I really want a doctorate in astrophysics or physics or engineering, somewhere in that realm.”
Each student said that qualifying as one of the 161 U.S. Presidential Scholars would mean a lot to their career goals.
“I don’t do it for the recognition, but just to know that I had that accomplishment and that I’ve gotten these grades and to know that I’m making a difference and maybe inspiring others means a lot to me,” Boyd said.
“If I’m able to receive this award, I would be extremely honored and very humbled with it,” Hurd added. “I hate talking to other people about awards and stuff because I genuinely feel like I’m not that different from anyone. I acknowledge that the award is crazy good. I’m definitely putting that in all of my resumes, even now just being a nominee.”
Curzon said potentially being one of the 161 U.S. Presidential Scholars would make all of her struggles through high school worth it.
“I’ve definitely had to jump through some hoops in my time. I’ve had to rebuild myself a few times from grades or academic stress, so I think it would mean that it was all worth it in the end and I pushed through and had the grit and determination to succeed,” she said.
Candidates are evaluated on their academic achievement, personal characteristics, leadership and service activities, and an analysis of their essays. If selected as candidates, they will compete against 4,000 students at the national semifinal level.
