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Six years ago Kik Hayano, now a Powell High School senior, had a meeting with her parents. The ambitious preteen had decided she wanted to go to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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Six years ago Kik Hayano, now a Powell High School senior, had a meeting with her parents. The ambitious preteen had decided she wanted to go to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
“When I was in sixth grade I figured out that I wanted to be an engineer. I didn't really know what I wanted to do in engineering but I knew I wanted to be an engineer,” Hayano said. “So I sat down with my parents and we made a plan and I'm very thankful that the middle school and high school have been so supportive in my seeking of advanced classes to help me get into MIT.”
But, despite her preparation Hayano was still nervous, she said, as her dream school’s acceptance rate is 4% — she joined that select group March 13.
“I was super nervous, I really wanted to get in. And so hearing the news [I was] very, very happy,” Hayano said.
Outside of her MIT admission Hayano has found other postsecondary success. She was chosen by the University of Wyoming to receive the Trustees’ Scholar Award and is a semi-finalist in the 2024 Presidential Scholars Program.
Hayano added that she is grateful for the administration at both the high school and middle school for helping her achieve her academic goals.
“I think it really means the world to me. It makes me very grateful,” Hayano said. “I've gotten support since sixth grade from teachers like Necole Hanks and [Greg] Stenlund at the high school and [Nick] Fulton and my employer, recently, Dr. [Jim] Heitholt and all of their support has really made this possible for me.”
So what’s next? True to her 12-year-old self, Hayano has a plan. When she leaves MIT, she’s going to work on agricultural instrumentation. She found her passion for the field while working part time at the Powell Research and Extension Center, she said.
“I want to improve that agricultural instrumentation partly, selfishly, because I enjoy the research and enjoy the work and I think it'd be cool to expedite it, but also because I believe agricultural research is very integral to solving food insecurity around the world,” Hayano said.
