CCA Student Spotlight: Taylor Cross
Taylor Cross is currently a senior at CCA. She has spent most of her life as a student at CCA. In a very short few months, she will walk across the stage with her peers to receive her diploma as part of the class of 2025. Think about this: the class of 2025 never lived in a world without YouTube or even Twitter. In a culture where many young people choose consumption over creation, Taylor and many of her peers have been busy pursuing their dreams and making a difference in the world. Check out some of Taylor’s highlights.
Taylor was chosen to be in the highly selective Yale Young Global Scholars Program this past summer where she spent two weeks at Yale studying STEM. She was honored to be selected for their Speaker Series, where she spoke to her peers and Yale faculty about her research on the benefits of plant-based nutrition. Taylor loved every second at Yale and says it was the best two weeks of her life!
After serving a year as Miss Fort Worth’s Teen, Taylor was honored to receive 1st runner-up at the Miss Texas Teen Competition this past summer. It was so exciting to get so close to representing Texas at Miss America! She was awarded numerous scholarships, including the Academic Excellence Scholarship, and was very honored to be the overall interview winner at Miss Texas’ Teen out of 52 contestants.
Taylor is a classically trained ballerina. She has been training in a pre-professional ballet program for the past 14 years. She just completed the Nutcracker, dancing the principal role of the Sugar Plum Fairy for the second year in a row where she was honored to dance with professionals Damien Coro and Masanao Ito. She loves ballet with all of her heart but has made the difficult decision to pursue her dream of becoming a doctor instead of dancing professionally.
Taylor’s proudest achievement is being the founder and president of her non-profit, Taylor Bears Inc., which she started in 2021. Taylor Bears donates teddy bears to children who are sick and in need and donates funds to pediatric cardio units. Taylor and her officers (CCA students Jackson Gill, Ezra Gonzalez, Logan Leger, and Reese Aldridge) have raised over $35,000 and donated over 6000 teddy bears to local hospitals and charities. She is grateful for CCA’s partnership and generosity over the past 4 years, which has resulted in her donating hundreds of bears to the Annual Taylor Bears Teddy Bear Drives!
Taylor was also honored to be chosen as a semifinalist in the 70th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. The nationwide pool of Semifinalists, representing less than one percent of the U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state. She has already received several full scholarship offers because of this great honor. She will make her final college decision in April!
CCA is proud of the excellence and hard work displayed by Taylor. We believe she will continue to do kingdom work in her field with all the excellence and compassion she displayed in high school. Her sweet spirit will certainly be missed on our campus.