Tylor Thurston

Hello, my name is Tylor Thurston and I’m a Senior at Havelock High School. Let me tell you a bit about myself. I have lived in Eastern North Carolina with my family my entire life. I am Amerasian. Being part Korean and learning about a different culture has influenced me in so many ways. It has given me a way to see the world from a different perspective.
Like most kids, I grew up loving video games. As I’ve gotten older my curiosity for technology and for how it works has grown. It has influenced me and driven me academically. My first technology class was STEM. In middle school I did a project making a wooden car that I launched using a small canister of nitrogen and learned how to build and operate a bottle rocket. I also learned basic coding and was able to program a robot to draw a picture. After a few months of STEM class I joined an organization known as the Technical Student Association. In TSA we would attend different colleges and participate in various competitions with other middle schools using our designs. In high school I continued my STEM courses and began to expand my interests to game coding. Briefly, I was a part of an organization called Skills USA, which unfortunately did not last long due to a shortage of members. I joined the National Technical Honor Society and serve as the Treasurer. I learned about game making courses through this club. I enrolled in Game Art and Design class and successfully wrote a Side-Scroller/ Platformer game program.
Attending college has been a dream of mine. My ultimate goal is to become a Computer Hardware Engineer. Last year I attended campus tours with my parents. I fell in love with everything I saw and heard. I knew a university was where I needed and wanted to be. It was more motivation for me to accomplish my dreams.

The opportunity to grow and learn is so important to me and would make me the first in my family to attend and graduate from college. Over the past four years I’ve worked hard toward that goal. I’m currently enrolled in advanced placement classes and Craven Community College courses. I have a GPA of 4.231. I’ve become a member of National Technical Honor Society or NTHS, National Honor Society, Future Business Leaders of America or FBLA, National Beta Club, National Society of High School Scholars, and Drama Club. I’ve participated in various community services by helping around my school with facility improvements, as a member of these organizations. I helped restore and organize at a local special needs facility, chaperoned at my childhood elementary school, and tutored at a local middle school. I appeared on a local news show called, “All About Craven” to educate and solicit support for events we were conducting for NTHS. I’ve attended numerous conventions, held a breakfast for retired teachers in my county and helped with fundraisers. Thank you so much for allowing me to share a little about myself.