Kylin Elliott: TechStart 2025 Girl Technology Student of the Year Award

May 27

Written By Columbia Community Connection

Ethan Elliott, Kylin Elliot, Ethan Ready, and Tom the robot.

From TechStart:

From Peter Steinfeld

Hood River, Ore., May 27, 2025 — TechStart is proud to give Kylin Elliott the award of TechStart 2025 Girl Technology Student of the Year. Kylin is a student at Hood River Valley High School, with approximately 1,100 students, located in Hood River, Oregon.

This is the first year that TechStart has granted an award to a girl, and TechStart is proud to give Kylin the award. The Columbia Gorge STEM Hub Director recommended Kylin by stating, “Kylin Elliott is deserving of this award due to her outstanding academic accomplishments, which reflect her dedication to excellence and passion for learning. Her performance in these challenging courses highlights her intellectual curiosity and commitment to her studies, particularly in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Her academic achievements are further complemented by her active involvement in STEM education outside of the classroom.”

TechStart awarded the TechStart 2025 Girl Technology Student of the Year to Kylin Elliott at the Technology Association of Oregon's 41st Annual Awards event. The TechStart award includes a $2,000 scholarship that can be applied to Kylin’s educational expenses and associated costs.

Kylin is honored to accept the TechStart Technology Student of the Year award. Kylin has completed eight Advanced Placement School (AP) courses at her high school and is recognized as a student in the Advanced Placement School (AP) with Distinction category. Kylin has also received these awards:

An outstanding student in the Rural and Small-Town Recognition Program
Academic All-American
First Robotics Competition (FRC): Three-time District Impact award
Two-time Hood River County School District Engineering Inspiration Award

Kylin is actively involved in a variety of STEM-related extracurricular activities. She has participated in First Lego League (FLL) and First FRC programs through First and the Oregon Robotics Tournament (ORTOP) Outreach Program for the past eight years. Kylin states, “I served as the FRC Outreach Captain for my team for the last two years, worked with ORTOP to run four separate FIRST Lego League Tournaments for 15-20 teams each at my high school, and have volunteered at other tournaments. In the last three years, I have worked with ORTOP and the Columbia Gorge STEM Hub to mentor and fund 34 First Lego League Robotics teams. I helped the STEM Hub with local STEM Fairs in the Columbia River Gorge. I also worked with Oregon State University (OSU) as a Teen STEM Mentor.” Click on this link to see examples of robotics activities and teams where Kylin volunteers. Kylin indicates she is accepted into the Biomedical Engineering program at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

Introducing TechStart’s K-12 program

TechStart’s bold goal is to see that every Oregon K-12 student has access to high-quality computer science education. Stoel Rives, Vernier Science Education, and TAO are proud supporters of TechStart.