ALAN MERRITT: Student of the Month
PHS senior excels academically, athletically
Alan Merritt runs in the Billings Cross Country meet earlier this school year. Merritt has competed in Cross Country all four years of high school, earning the All- Conference Award his junior and senior years and the All- State title his junior year.
The Powell High School Student of the Month award for October was given to senior Alan Merritt.
“He’s a good student. He’s on top of his homework all the time,” Cross Country Assistant Coach and World History and U.S. Government teacher Ashley Hildebrand said. “In robotics, he’s really excelled and he’s taken kids under his wing and has provided them with leadership.”
Throughout his high school years, Merritt has competed in both the drone project and in Robotics.
“Alan is a very good leader because he could do everything but he doesn’t,” Robotics coach Mr. Joel Hayano said. “He actually has the other people on the team do work even though he could probably do it himself.
Merritt has taken up a leadership position on the team, helping with everything and guiding the less-experienced to success.
“He’ll divy up the work so everyone feels like they’re participating,” Mr. Hayano said. “That’s a really good quality. He’s been very valuable. Not just to his team, but to the whole club. He’ll do everything we need him to do to help out.”
On the robotics team, Merritt stands out with his knowledge about … everything.
“The one thing I noticed right off the bat was that he could do all the stuff,” Mr. Hayano said. “He could do the programming and the building and he could 3D print all his own stuff and make his own stuff.
“He pretty much taught himself how to do all of it. He knows how to do all of it because he took the time to learn how to do all the things that you need to do for robotics.”
Merritt has also competed in cross country, swimming, and track during high school.
“From the get-go he’s been a good runner,” Mrs. Hildebrand said.
For Mr. Hayano, Merritt’s future looks bright.
“I think he’s going to do really well when he goes [to college],” Mr. Hayano said. “We’re going to miss him a lot.”
Living up to that won’t be a challenge for Merritt, who says his goals for the future are to, “Get a job, and not live in a cardboard box.” He also plans to get a career in engineering.
“I haven’t decided [what college] yet, but I’m thinking either Utah State or University of Wyoming,” Merritt said.
Merritt said his favorite memories and experiences of high school are of robotics; he only had a few words of wisdom he wished he could give to his younger self.
“Be prepared to stay up terribly late nights to do terribly large amounts of Calculus,” Merritt said.
