Cedar Ridge High senior Nichole Palombo has, since she was much younger, loved to spend a lot of time outdoors. She took summer camps, walked along and in the Eno River, gotten wet, gotten muddy, caught tadpoles and snakes. She made homes for Madtoms, which are freshwater catfish. As Nichole’s passion for the outdoors developed, so too, did her interest in studying natural environments and ecosystems.
“I wanted to protect it,” she said. “The outdoors has always been something that’s fundamental to me. That’s why I decided to go into biological engineering.”
The Hillsborough native has already been accepted at N.C. State University, and this month learned she earned the school’s Goodnight Scholarship, which is awarded to low- and middle-income North Carolina students studying in the STEM disciplines or affiliated education majors. The value of the scholarship is $24,000 and is renewable for up to four years for first-year students…