On Friday, October 21, 2011, Jennifer Taylor, a Bristol Central graduate and daughter of Mrs. Dickau, spoke to a group of bright young scholars at this year's CAPT Scholars Breakfast, which is held every year to honor juniors who performed well on the Connecticut Academic Performance Test.  Taylor, who herself had many outstanding achievements while attending BCHS, spoke to the students about how her personal experiences at BC have led her to where she is today and additinoally, how students should take advantage of every learning experience for future success.
   During her speech, Taylor referred not only of her classroom learning experiences, but of her extracurricular activities as well.  Taylor was actively involvedin the schoolnewspaper (then advised by Mr. Waraska), her class office (advised by Mr.Greenleaf), and the school's creative arts publication "Signatures" (advised by Mrs.Dickau).  From these diverse activities, Taylorsaid she learned the importance of "having a passion", the importance of payingattention to details(by "treating every project like it's the most important one") and the importance of "getting at the heart of what matters" inanything you do.
   By taking partin so many activities during her fouryears at Bristol Central,Taylor really prepared herself for her future, she stressed to the students.  At thjat early stagein her life, Taylor had learned the value of hard work and perseverance and gained the insight that comes from "drawing on the network around [you]."  Today,Taylor says these skills play a large parat in her career as Manager of Communications at IBM,where she often uses these skillsin her interactions with colleagues with whom she works on various projects.
   While sharing her experiences with the foundation that Bristol Central provided her, Jennifer Tayloralso acknowledged the hard work that each studentattending the breakfast went through just to get thereand said it was "fantastic" that each student was receiving recognition for the hard workthey did.  "It's phenomenal what these juniors achieved as CAPT Scholars," she said.
   Referring back to the world beyond high school,"recognition",she said, is important not just to students, but to adults too. Everyone "need[s] someone to say 'thank you'", saidTaylor.  But before she received her "thank you's" from the assembly of CAPT schoalrs and parents, she hoped to leave the juniors with at least one "nugget" of advice that would resonate with them.
   Did she do this?  Taylor said that, though she saw some nods of approvel from students during the speech and received some encouraging comments from mothers afterwards, only "time will tell" if they were as impacted by her speech as Jennifer was whenshe sat in on similar talks at their age.
  Who knows, though.  Maybe in a few years one of these juniors will find themselves speaking in front of a crowd of Bristol Central's youth!