CARY, N.C. – Studying science for more than half her life, 8-year-old Amoy Shepherd was the keynote speaker at the Triangle Youth Innovation Summit this year.

• Wearing a white lab coat she was armed with information
• She says she wants people to reach their potential
• The event also offered other STEM workshops

“Science is pretty cool if you really study hard,” Shepherd said. “What I wanted to get across was that you should act on your potential.”

Nearly 200 students from the Triangle attended the summit. Another hundred adults also came out to hear from the little neuroscientist.

“That’s amazing. Can you imagine? I just think about what I was, who I was and what I was doing at 8 years old,” Joseph Lynn with the Triangle Uplift Foundation said.

The day was also made up of workshops that gave the attendees a chance to get some hands on experience with the science, technology, engineering and math subjects.