We were proud to recently unveil the 2018 Tallo Top 100 students.

Hailing from all across the nation, the students of the Top 100 represent a wide variety of talent, skills, and backgrounds. We wanted to get to know these students better and showcase the personalities behind the Tallo platform!

We caught up with Top 100 student Jake Chao for our most recent spotlight. This week, we’re checking in with Tyler Blake from Provo, Utah.

Music is a big part of Tyler’s life, where he has distinguished himself in both instrumental and vocal performance. His talent on the piano has led him to perform in concert tours of Central America and Southeast Asia , and he has been honored for his ability at the state-wide level several times. He was also named to Utah’s All-State Choir, and he serves as president of his school’s choir team. Academically, Tyler has earned recognition as a National Merit Scholar as well as an AP Scholar with Distinction.  On the playing field, he serves as captain of his club soccer team.

He has committed to attending Brigham Young University – where he was awarded the institution’s selective Russell M. Nelson Scholarship – beginning this summer. He is interested in pursuing a future in both the musical and psychological fields.

Read more about Tyler below in his own words.

Tyler Blake

Senior

Timpview High School

Provo, UT

For fun, I like to…meet new people. I have always been fascinated by people. Everyone has a different story to tell, and each one is worth hearing.

Something you wouldn’t know about me is…I absolutely love animals. I have a pet dog named Chester, and he’s definitely one of the highlights of every day.

If I could meet anyone in the world, past or present, I would want to meet…Johann Sebastian Bach. Music is a large part of my life, and Bach is by far my favorite composer to play. It would be an amazing experience to meet him, learn from him, and get a firsthand account of how he composed and played.

The best teacher I’ve ever had is…my 11th grade english teacher, Mrs. VanOrden. She had a way of creating a classroom environment in which grades were not the focus. Instead, she was able to focus on learning to write, and learning to love writing. There was never any pressure to perform at a certain level. Just a love of writing that she was able to transfer to each of her students. I learned more in that class than I have in any other.

The last app I downloaded on my phone was…GroupMe. I know it’s super boring, but I don’t really ever download apps on my phone. GroupMe just lets me have a simple and easy way to manage group texts with various organizations I am a part of. I’d rather be out doing something than looking at a new app on my phone.

After high school, my next step is…attending Brigham Young University this summer. After this summer, I will be taking a break from college to serve a 2 year LDS mission, after which I will continue to pursue my educational goals at BYU.

In ten years, I see myself...still in school, working on a doctorate degree. I also see myself married in ten years, possibly with a child. Family has always been a major part of my life, and will continue to be so in ten years.

My greatest dream is…to find a way that I can really make a difference in the world. Whether this is through humanitarian efforts, or simply through my career and research, I want to create a way that I can help thousands upon thousands of people improve their lives. Service has always brought me great joy, and I hope to be able to continue to find ways to serve more and more people throughout my life.

The thing I like about Tallo most is…it helps you to organize your portfolio. While completing college and scholarship applications throughout the last year, there was a lot of different aspects of my life that I needed to write about. Tallo gave me an opportunity to organize the highlights of my life in a concise and simple manner that helped me to organize my ideas for any essays I needed to write for college.

We hope for the best for you Tyler, and we’re proud to have you be a Tallo user and part of the 2018 Tallo Top 100!