Photo Credit: APQCEducation
APQC Awards Laylee Taghizadeh – Cypress Creek High School Student $100,000
APQC, the benchmarking and best practices research firm, has announced its 2025 recipients for the C. Jackson Grayson Scholarship Award. Taking home $100,000 each in college scholarship money are graduating seniors:
- Levi Salem – YES Prep Gulfton Secondary (Charter School),
- Singtung “Sunny” Lok – Carnegie Vanguard High School (Houston ISD), and
- Laylee Taghizadeh – Cypress Creek High School (Cypress-Fairbanks ISD).
Laylee Taghizadeh – Cypress Creek High School (Cypress-Fairbanks ISD)
Laylee is a student of Middle Eastern descent with a 4.0 GPA and a #2 class ranking at Cypress Creek High School, driven by a passion for medicine and research on incurable diseases. Her personal experience shaped her dedication to medicine and patient care, particularly after the medical and financial hardships that deeply affected her family. She aspires to become a pediatrician. She plans to attend Rice University.
She is the President of the Science National Honor Society and STEM Club, won first place in the Lone Star Regional Science Olympiad, and published research on Celiac Disease through the Teens in Health Summer Program. She gained hands-on experience in the medical field as a temporary intern in the neuroscience department at Johns Hopkins University. She holds down four part-time jobs, each with a different role: technical secretary, author, tutor, and music instructor.
APQC President and CEO Lisa Higgins shares, “Our founder, Jack Grayson, believed that education was the pathway to freedom, and that if we could educate our children, they would have many more opportunities. To honor him, we created the scholarship program. It’s my favorite week of the year.”
This is the program’s fourth year, and it awards $100,000 scholarships annually. The scholarship program is intended to change the lives of young individuals and their families for years to come. The applicant pool included six counties in the Houston Area and focused primarily on financial need, followed by leadership skills demonstrated throughout their school careers, and a minimum GPA of 2.5. In addition to the scholarship funds, APQC will offer paid summer internships, mentoring, and skill development to support the recipients’ success in their education and careers.
The application portal for the 2026 awards opens on October 8 and is capped at the first 100 submissions. Details at https://www.apqc.org/about-apqc/C.JacksonGraysonScholarshipProgram.
APQC helps organizations work smarter, faster, and with greater confidence. With over 45 years of experience, it is the world’s foremost authority in benchmarking, best practices, process and performance improvement, and knowledge management. More than 1,000 member organizations worldwide, spanning 60 industries, rely on APQC for the information, data, and insights organizations need to support decision-making and develop internal capabilities. Learn more about apqc.org.
Source: APQC
