Being in the top of an entire class is no small feat. It takes a lot of hard work, dedication, and effort, all of which are things shown by Nicholas Blanchard, who finished fourth with a 4.40 GPA in the senior class out of 312 graduates. In his time at Milford High School, Nick focused mainly on robotics, his academics and working on cars.

Nick finished his high school career taking 11 advanced placement classes and five honors classes, always filling his schedule with the most rigorous classes that he was able to, saying that, “It was the best way to prepare for college, and it made learning more interesting and challenging for me.”

Nick’s biggest extracurricular was the HOT robotics team. He was a part of his middle school team before coming to the high school level, he had an older brother Zach Blanchard, who was already on the HOT team, and his dad was a mentor working with the team, so he had a good foot in the door. However, Nick didn’t just settle for being a member of the team. He worked tirelessly for four years to learn everything he possibly could, in the process becoming a more integral member of the team. In this time, he gained the respect of not just his team members, but the many mentors and GM Engineers that he worked with.

By the time Nick’s senior year came around he had worked hard enough to be the undisputed leader of the HOT team, putting in more hours than half of the team combined. He has estimated that just this year he put in an incomprehensible 500 hours into the season, taking place across just four months. During the season, he was the driver of the HOT robot and led the team to get to the finals round of their division. Their robot, thanks to Nick’s incredible driving skills, was ranked in the top five offensive robots out of the entire world.

Although his High School robotics career has come to a close, Nick has no plans of stopping anytime soon. He already has a list of robotics based teams and clubs that he is interested in joining at the University of Michigan, where he will be attending next fall. Nick is enrolled in the college of Engineering and is looking into majoring in either mechanical or aerospace engineering.

As one of Milford High’s brightest students, he is sure to go on and achieve great things in his future, just as he has done in his time here.