CLEMMONS, N.C. — This week’s Spectrum News High School Scholar is trying to make the world a kinder place. 

What You Need To Know

  • The Spectrum News High School Scholars program recognizes exceptional students across the state and awards them a $1,000 scholarship toward their college education

  • This week’s Spectrum News High School Scholar is Taylor Ellison, a senior at West Forsyth High School

  • Ellison has been accepted to several universities and plans to pursue digital marketing and advertising

Taylor Ellison is constantly on the go. The West Forsyth High School senior’s life is filled with classes, community service, a wide variety of school activities and much more. He’s often on the tennis court, where he both plays and runs social media for the varsity tennis teams at his school. 

“At the start I was like, there’s no way I’m going to be good at this, but now I just know that I can keep getting better,” Ellison said.

That realization defined his high school career. 

“I had a really hard time my first… my freshman year, with grades and like keeping up with schoolwork,” Ellison said. “I just never saw myself going far, and I had no idea or clarity as to what I wanted to do.”

He did just about everything to figure that out. A portion of Ellison’s resume includes coordinating social media for West Forsyth High School’s girls and boys varsity tennis teams, and serving as a group leader for Titan Trainers and managing social media for other school clubs, including Key Club International.

That experience led him to realize his passion for digital marketing and advertising. 

“I know that every day is an opportunity to do more things,” Ellison said. 

His passion on the court continued into the classroom. Ellison has since blasted through the 4.0 ceiling — and he hasn’t looked back.

He’s dual-enrolled at Forsyth Tech, and plans to graduate with his associate degree when he finishes high school. Not to mention, several universities want him. 

Ellison said in his extra time, he enjoys volunteering in his community, including at summer camps for visually impaired children and through the Kindness Rocks Project.

The project encourages people to paint inspirational messages on stones to leave in their communities. Ellison created a local outpost of the Kindness Rocks Project in Clemmons and said he has painted over 2,000 stones.

He also said this project is personal. 

“I had a friend in elementary school who took his life just because of, like, people being mean and bullying,” Ellison said. “It’s like, such a sad thing to see but even if I can brighten a kid’s life, like if that were him, I like to think that someone like him might stumble across it one day and see it and remember that there is hope.”

North Carolina state Sen. Paul Lowe visited West Forsyth High School to present Ellison with a $1,000 scholarship to help him begin the next chapter of his life.