As a National Merit Scholar recipient and maintaining a 3.9 GPA, Taylor is completing his senior year credits through a combination of online and dual credit courses at the Austin Community College Rio Grande campus.

“I had a pretty hard time deciding on which school I was going to pick as my final decision,” Taylor said. “Throughout my college process I had considered schools like Brown, Davidson, Cornell, and William and Mary. I was focused on going the best academic school that I could get into.”

Washington and Lee is located in Lexington, Virginia, about three hours southwest of Washington D.C. The university offers more than 1100 courses to an undergraduate student body of less than 1800. The school provides a fully accredited business school, a fully accredited journalism program, as well as The School of Law.

“Academically, I have wanted to be a lawyer for as long as I can remember, so going to a top law school is a big goal of mine,” Taylor said. “The ATA College Prep really helped me cement my interest in the legal field. Last year, my junior year, we had a debate class, which really showed me how much I enjoyed researching arguments and counter arguments as well as getting to walk up to the podium and assert my position.”

The W and L Generals men’s tennis team is currently competing in the conference semi finals, facing Emory and Henry. The team is defending a number 1 seed in the tournament. This season the team is 12-3 overall, with a 9-0 conference record. In 2010, the Generals finished the year ranked 26th in the country.

“Athletically I am very excited about being able to take a leadership position at W&L starting my freshman year,” Taylor said. “I will be getting to opportunity to play high in the line up right off the bat, and hopefully lead my team to NCAA’s and possibly the championship. No matter where I had decided to go to school, one of my goals was going to be becoming the team captain, and I believe I will have that opportunity at Washington and Lee.”

Taylor expressed sincere appreciation for ATA, his individual coaches, as well as his parents in helping prepare him for the next steps in his life.
 
“ATA has been a tremendous help in preparing me for college. On court I have learned how to work hard day in and day out, and the coaches have done a great job making sure I know what will be expected of me on my college team. Off the court ATA has helped me learn how to be independent, responsible, and accountable. I know that college life will present me with a bunch of challenges that I have not yet had to face, but I am sure that there is no other place in the world that could have better prepared me to handle those challenges correctly than ATA. Both Coach Jack Newman and Coach Doug Davis have been a big part of my experience at ATA. They have both gone out of their way to check on me from time to time, and they have always been there for me when I have needed them. Both of my parents have been very supportive of me over the years and I can’t thank them enough for all that they have done for me.”