#GIRLBOSS
Tara hill-Starks Grandma, I Got This!
T
ara Hill graduated from Asheboro High School in 1992. She then went on to Catawba College, in Salisbury, NC where she graduated with a Business Management degree in 1996. Tara moved to Ohio to work for Energizer Battery as an Operations Supervisor for two years. When that facility closed down, she moved to Rocky Mount, NC to work for Abbott Laboratories as an Operations Supervisor. She worked for Abbott for seven years, before moving closer to home to take a position in High Point at Banner Pharma Caps. She applied for and was accepted as a business teacher at Southeastern Randolph Middle School, in Ramseur, NC. While there, she went back to school to get her teaching certificate at NC A&T State University in Greensboro, NC. She accepted a position at Kernodle Middle School in Greensboro, and while she was teaching there, she got her MBA. She met her husband through her best friend, and although they had been aware of each other throughout the years, they really connected at a housewarming party in 2015, and were married in 2016. He was working as an air traffic controller at the BWI airport in Baltimore, MD at the time, but in 2017 was relocated to Myrtle Growing up, one of the biggest influences in Tara’s
life was her Grandmother, Mary Mathilda Ray. Her grandmother taught her to be nice to others no matter who they are or what they believe. She instilled in Tara basic life skills that have helped her through the years and taught her to give back. When her grandmother passed away in 2016, she knew she wanted to remember her in some meaningful way, so that is when she started writing a book. She approached Tellwell Talent, a self-publishing company based in British Columbia who works with writers to publish their books in the US, Canada, and Europe. They secured an illustrator for the book, Cleoward Sy, who did a wonderful job. The book, Grandma, I Got This! came out in hard cover and paperback in November 2020. The main character of the book, JJ, is based on her three-year-old son. “JJ is a young and energetic boy. He learns valuable life lessons taught by his adoring and wise grandmother. JJ puts these lessons into action! He shares his toys and counts his blessings. JJ makes his grandmother proud. Will JJ remember these lessons when Grandma goes away? What can YOU learn from Grandma?” Throughout the book JJ learns valuable lessons at Grandma’s knee, how loving others, showing forgiveness asheboromagazine.com | 27
