Bioscience High School senior Samantha Su Taylor was recently awarded a Flinn Scholarship, making her the first student from the school to ever receive this prestigious merit.
The scholarship is worth an estimated $100,000 and covers tuition, room and board at a public Arizona university. It also provides funding to study abroad.
“It’s really great that she got it,” Bioscience Principal Deedee Falls said. “She completely deserves it.”
The 18-year-old is one of 20 recipients, which were chosen from 653 applicants.
The Flinn Foundation promotes improving quality of life in order to benefit future generations in Arizona. The scholarship program, which was created in 1986, seeks hard-working, determined student leaders who are involved in extracurricular activities and volunteer work.
“We look for student leaders who are committed to strengthening their community,” said Matt Ellsworth, director of the Flinn Scholars Program.
Taylor is currently the president of the National Honor Society at Bioscience and is also involved with student government.
Outside of school, Taylor volunteers at Phoenix Children’s Hospital, where she logged more than 500 hours. She also volunteered at Growhouse, Garfield Elementary School and the Tangelo Grove Senior Center.
“I love volunteering and helping others,” Taylor said.
Taylor participated in the Valley of the Sunflowers project, where Bioscience students helped plant and harvest sunflowers to temporarily make use of a vacant lot. The seeds from the sunflowers will be used to make biofuel for Bioscience’s XR3 car, which is close to completion.
Additionally, Taylor and a team of students worked with the Roosevelt Row Community Development Corporation Teen Advisory Council during a year-long senior studio project to help establish an organization on Bioscience’s campus called the Community Task Force, aimed at bettering the community.
“We saw that there was a need for a group to kind of organize all of the community projects that we do at our school in order to help improve them,” Taylor said.
Taylor said students at Bioscience work with the community every year, but have trouble finding new organizations to work with. The Community Task Force will provide communication and connection assistance to students who want to make a bigger impact.
The Community Task Force and the Teen Advisory Council can share ideas and projects in regards to helping the community, Taylor said.
Besides her involvement with Bioscience and the community, Taylor also interned with the Translational Genomics Research Institute, where she shadowed doctors at the St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center lab. She assisted with research and experiments using methods such as cell culture, western bolts and immunofluorescence.
Taylor interned at the lab while Dr. Suzan Semaan was working on a prostate cancer project. She had the chance to learn about signal transduction among proteins within the prostate cancer cells.
“Samantha is a bright, respectful, helpful and lovable student,” Semaan said. “I am honored to have had the chance to teach and work with her.”
Taylor plans on pursuing a medical career and will begin her undergraduate studies at the University of Arizona this fall. She also received the University of Arizona Alumni Scholarship and the Wildcat Excellence award.
Contact the reporter at Natalia.Jamroz@asu.edu
