While spending her typical weekday in the classroom absorbing as much information as possible, Richardson is also a passionate advocate, activist, speaker and philanthropist with not only dreams of following in the footsteps of famous astronauts, but also becoming a scientist and engineer.
A passion still only five years or so in the making, Richardson has not played it slowly with achieving her goals, having already attended four NASA space centers, including the US Space and Rocket Center, otherwise known as ‘Space Camp’, where kids get to see up close and personal what being involved in space is really like. Given that space has historically been a white-male-dominated space, Richardson considers Dr. Mae Jemison her personal idol as the first African-American woman in space when she orbited the Earth in the space shuttle Endeavour in 1992. Rather than being an inspiration for future generations,
Richardson is already an inspiration for the current generation of eager young minds as an advocate for science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education and encouragement. Among her community, she started a book drive called Taylor’s Take Flight With a Book project, which donates books to kids in programs who wouldn’t typically be able to afford them. Taylor has raised money in the past for children to see the movies Hidden Figures and A Wrinkle in Time. She also celebrates the company Lottie Dolls, which developed a range of dolls launched in 2012 based on ideas inspired by real kids to break STEM stereotypes.
3 Things We Love About Taylor:
- Richardson led a GoFundMe campaign that successfully raised around $20,000 to send more than 1,000 underprivileged youths to see the film Hidden Figures
- She followed this up with an even greater feat by raising more than $100,000 to help 1,000 kids see A Wrinkle In Time and give disadvantaged children scholarships to NASA Space Camps.
- Taylor is always striving towards her goal, and is very focused and driven! She is an inspiration to everyone.