By: Kelly Farrell
Paducah Tilghman High School senior Frannie Hideg sees a future in learning more about the vast unknown of space and dreams of an engineering career.
“I’ve just kind of always had an interest in engineering because I’m a very hands-on person, and one time I found about aerospace engineering and I thought that’s really interesting,” she said.
“I just think space is pretty cool because there’s so much unknown and I want to be a part of figuring some stuff out about it.”
The 17-year-old student also recalled a moment when she was younger that helped point her in that direction career-wise.
“I remember we took one of these career tests, where we put in our interests, and then it gave us a list of careers that might suit us and that was one of the top ones,” she said. “I read about it, and from then I’ve been really interested in it.”
She wants to major in aerospace engineering in college, but she’s still undecided on which university to attend. A few colleges that she’s interested in are Auburn University, Saint Louis University and the University of Illinois.
“I would like to work for NASA. That’s the end goal eventually,” Hideg said, adding there’s a potential — as an aerospace engineer, to either work in mission control or go on an actual mission.
Hideg, daughter of Julie and Michael Hideg of Paducah, is the Paducah Bank Teen of the Week.
Every Tuesday, The Sun publishes an article on a senior who was chosen for Teen of the Week recognition. Around the end of the school year, a selection committee names one of these students as Teen of the Year, which carries a $5,000 scholarship. Another student will receive the Inspiration Award and a $1,000 scholarship.
At Paducah Tilghman, Hideg has earned a weighted cumulative GPA above 4.1 and received AP Scholar recognition. She’s involved in different sports and clubs, including soccer, tennis, National Honor Society, Beta Club, sustainability club and mock trial. She also serves as vice president for the interact club. Outside of school, Hideg has worked as a youth soccer referee and summer camp counselor. “I like soccer because there is like the teamwork aspect behind it,” she said. Hideg played as a midfielder for the team.
“You have to learn how to work with a group of people really well, so you can succeed, and I like tennis because it’s not necessarily a team sport, but you still have a whole team of people behind you cheering you on,” Hideg added.
She started playing soccer for school in the seventh grade, and later began tennis in junior year. A favorite sports memory for Hideg is winning her very first tennis match last year as a junior, as she had only been playing for a few months.
As for senior year, Hideg described it as being “pretty great” and noted the Paducah Tilghman football team made it to the state championship game this season, which was an “amazing experience” to be a part of. Her goals include maintaining her grades, figuring out where she wants to attend college and working on scholarships.