Rome High senior Sam Hard has been working diligently throughout his high school career. Last week when he was named Rome High School’s Salutatorian for the Class of 2025, he felt it was an obvious extension of the work he’s put in.
“I think to me being a salutatorian is really more of a reward for the amount of work I've put in towards my other academic goals throughout my life and throughout my educational career,” Hard said.
Hard is the son of Dr. Brian and Heather Hard. He has a 4.627 grade point average and has been very active during his time at Rome High.
Among the many honors Hard has received include him being named an AP Scholar with Distinction and earning the AP Capstone Diploma. He is a two-time Governor’s Honors nominee and earned Duke TIP State honors as well as the University of Georgia Certificate of Merit. He is an Emerge High School Leadership Rome Participant and has twice been honored as a Rome High School Wolf Award recipient.
He was part of the 2024 SkillsUSA Robotics Team that was an Urban Search and Rescue State Winner as well as an FBLA Journalism State placer.
Hard has also stayed active at Rome High in numerous clubs and sports, including the Rome High Engineering and Design, Rome Composite Youth Mountain Bike Team, Future Business Leaders of America, BEAR Club, League of Young Voters, National Honor Society, Junior Civitan, SkillsUSA, and Interact Club.
“I currently hope to be a civil engineer in the future. Either doing structural engineering or transportation engineering probably, but obviously, that could change depending on what happens in college. There's a lot of different fields in engineering,” Hard said.
One of the aspects Hard said he likes most about engineering is that it requires a lot of different skill sets.
“I like that it takes a lot of different types of skills. You have math skills, you have to have science skills. Depending on the engineering you do, you even have to have a little bit of social studies and a little bit of literature skills for reports,” Hard said.
What Hard also likes about engineering and what brings a big smile to his face when says it, is the impact engineering and engineers can have.
“I really think engineering makes the world a better place,” he said.
Hard has applied to several colleges and has not yet decided where he plans to study engineering.