09/18/2026
🎓 Introducing TCS Student Feature Friday! 🖤💛
Tucker County Schools has some remarkable students, and we want our community to know more about who they are—not only what they accomplish, but what interests them, inspires them, challenges them, and where they hope to go next.
That's what TCS Student Feature Friday is all about.
And we couldn't think of a better way to begin.
Meet Tucker County High School seniors Nate Powell and Zayden McClurg, Tucker County Schools' first National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists in 10 years!
Becoming a National Merit Semifinalist is a significant academic achievement. Students enter the National Merit Scholarship Program through the PSAT/NMSQT, and Semifinalists represent a small group of the highest-scoring students in each state.
But this isn't the end of Nate and Zayden's National Merit journey. Their next step is the process of advancing from Semifinalist to Finalist. Tucker County High School's most recent National Merit Finalist was Seth Underwood in 2015, and we'll be cheering Nate and Zayden on as they work toward that next distinction.
Nate also accomplished something extraordinary on the qualifying assessment: he earned a perfect score in math, without missing a single math question!
Those numbers are impressive. But after sitting down with these two, we discovered something even more interesting: how differently their interests and experiences have shaped the way they think about learning.
So let's meet Nate & Zayden.
🎤 THE Q&A
Q: What do you enjoy doing outside of school?
NATE: The outdoors is a big part of Nate's life. He loves skiing—and even teaches it—as well as backpacking and hiking. He also genuinely enjoys working on engineering projects in his free time.
ZAYDEN: Zayden also loves to ski. He works with the Adventure Guild and at a local restaurant, and he's a fan of trivia and trivia nights.
Q: What do you think has contributed to your success as a student?
NATE: Math has always been fun for Nate. His motivation comes from genuinely wanting to understand things and learning for the sake of learning, rather than simply earning a grade.
ZAYDEN: Reading—and lots of it—has played a major role for Zayden. He credits much of his success to reading widely, staying curious, and asking a lot of questions.
Q: Who has influenced you the most?
NATE: His brother, whose high expectations challenged Nate and helped establish a path that Nate continues to follow.
ZAYDEN: His mother, who has always pushed him to learn and grow and homeschooled him during part of his childhood.
Q: What advice would you give younger students?
NATE: Stay curious. Question everything. Don't be satisfied with simply knowing an answer—work to understand the explanation behind it.
ZAYDEN: Think of learning as the path to the answer, rather than focusing only on getting the answer. Mistakes—big or small—don't have to define your academic career. Remind yourself that you're still learning, that you can be successful, and don't psych yourself out.
Q: Where do you see yourself after high school?
NATE: Mechanical engineering. Nate is particularly interested in solving mechanical problems that can improve people's lives, including work that benefits people with disabilities and underserved communities. This summer, he spent six weeks at Carnegie Mellon, where he had the opportunity to work with biomedical engineering devices.
He's especially interested in Dartmouth because of its opportunities in medical engineering research. And there's another attraction for someone who loves skiing—the college has its own ski area!
ZAYDEN: His interests have evolved from creative writing toward math, coding, computer science, and game development. He is particularly interested in the place where the creative and technical worlds meet.
For Zayden, choosing a college isn't simply about the name on the diploma. He wants opportunities to create side projects and ultimately build a polished portfolio that shows what he can do.
Q: If you could meet anyone, living or deceased, who would it be?
NATE: Fred Rogers. Mister Rogers' Neighborhood was part of Nate's childhood, and its messages helped shape the way he thinks about kindness and empathy. Nate's own interest in working with and teaching children and community members is one reason Fred Rogers continues to be someone he admires.
ZAYDEN: Sir David Attenborough. The legendary nature broadcaster and narrator was one of Zayden's childhood heroes and helped spark his interest in the natural world.
Q: What's somewhere you'd love to go?
NATE: Glacier National Park. He'd love to road-trip there with friends next summer and experience its landscape and glaciers firsthand.
ZAYDEN: Scandinavia. The Scandinavian countries are at the top of his travel list.
Q: One thing people might not know about you?
NATE: If Nate were 80 years old and writing his autobiography, he already knows the title: Learning for the Sake of Learning. It sums up something that has already become an important part of how he approaches life.
ZAYDEN: He's been a vegetarian since around second or third grade, loves trivia, and spent part of this past summer teaching himself coding simply because he wanted to learn it.
🖤💛 Closing
Two students. Different interests. Different paths. But one thing came through again and again during our conversation with Nate and Zayden: curiosity matters.
For both of them, learning isn't simply about getting the right answer. It's about asking another question, understanding the why, trying something new, making mistakes, and continuing to learn.
Congratulations to Nate Powell and Zayden McClurg on being named National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists—and thank you for being the very first students featured in TCS Student Feature Friday!
We can't wait to see where your curiosity takes you next. 🖤💛
