Norman's Taylor Carmen – Academic Athlete presented by Republic Bank & Trust

Written by John Tranchina

Between her role as a senior co-captain of the Norman High pom team and several other school activities that take up a bunch of time, it’s not really that surprising that Taylor Carmen still manages to maintain a 4.0 GPA, because she makes her grades a top priority.

“It’s always been really important to me,” Carmen says of her academics. “I’m very much a perfectionist. Always growing up, when it came to school, it was important to me to do the best that I could. I was so OCD and everything had to be absolutely perfect, and as I got older, even though I love pom and all of that, I realize how important my grades are becoming to my future, and so they became a very big focus in my life, going forward in high school.”

In addition to pom, Carmen is “president of our Rotary Interact club at Norman High, I’m in Corral at Norman High, which is like our honor choir program,” and is also involved in the Key Club and National Honors Society. Still, with all that going on, she makes sure she finds time to get her homework done.

“It’s definitely been difficult at times, but I’ve somehow realized how to balance all of it and how to find time for every activity,” Carmen said. “Usually, teachers are pretty good about it, and I’m also involved in the school musical at Norman High. I don’t always know how I make it happen, but…”

As for her role on the pom team, Carmen likes being a leader.

“I enjoy it,” she said. “I’ve been a captain for the last two years and it’s been fun taking on that role and being involved in more than just the sideline aspect of it, and being more in charge of our halftime routines and being involved in choreographing that and uniforms, and keeping the team up to the standards that we want to be at.”