BUFFALO, N.Y. — Emilie Griffin was a senior at Frontier High School this past school year, graduated as Valedictorian of her class, and is WGRZ's STEM Star of the Month for July 2022.
Emilie is headed to the University at Buffalo this fall with a major in computer science. A subject, she says, was directly influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic. Emilie spent much of her sophomore and junior years either with fully remote or hybrid learning.
"So that’s where my interest in computer science really started to kick in because everything we were doing was computer-based. And then in my computer science class, we were learning about algorithms and all the stuff like that. I started to see more of how everything worked,” said Emilie."
But once Emilie was able to get back into the classroom, AP Environmental Science teacher Mike Delmont says that her positive attitude and passion for learning made all the difference.
"It makes things a lot more fun. When there are students who are engaged, having fun, and like doing over-the-top activities and talking about the stuff, just makes it a lot more fun to be in that class," said Mike.
Even so, Emilie made sure to point out how attending school virtually during the pandemic influenced some of her decision-making when preparing to go to college. "I’m going in with a lot of college credits, but I’m actually deciding to re-take a lot of courses because my education was in COVID," said Emilie.
A mature sign of an excellent student who has never been afraid to put her education first. And after putting her own puzzle together, Emilie is excited to see where her career may take her.
“A lot of the science-based programs, I’m looking into who makes that, who makes that stuff happen. Because obviously there’s a computer science somewhere or a bio-informaticist somewhere who made that happen. And who fixes that program when it breaks? Like medical databases that doctors use. People make that happen," said Emilie when asked about her future career.
If you know of a student who excels in science, technology, engineering, or math-related fields, nominate them to be the next STEM Star here.
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