Ever since she was a senior at Portville Central School, Shayla Wilhelm, set her sights on the sky. The 2020 PCS valedictorian and John J. Murphy Family and Portville College scholarships recipient was not just a high achiever – she quite literally had dreams to be in the sky. Wilhelm is currently an undergraduate junior in the aerospace engineering program at Florida Institute of Technology, with an emphasis on students in astronautics. Due to her achievements in the program, she has been inducted into the engineering national honor society, which requires students be in the top eighth of the college of engineering junior class. On campus, she is also the first chair clarinetist of the Florida Tech Pep Band.

Outside of the classroom, Wilhelm worked as the lead math instructor at the Mathnasium of Viera, FL, where she tutored students in grades pre-k through 12 in a number of math-based subjects. S

he plans to pursue her in M.S. in aerospace engineering , with eventual plans to pursue a career working for a lead space agency like NASA, Space X or Blue Origin.