While others her age focus on NCEA, Taylor also has another focus - winning gold at the 2014 Olympic Games in Russia and eventually becoming the top New Zealand competitor on the World Cup circuit.
This week Taylor was named in the four-strong New Zealand Women's ski team for the next 12 months - a selection she has been working towards since she first took up skiing when she was about 12 years old.
Born and bred in Queenstown, Taylor competed in a race, won it and was "hooked".
There has been no looking back for the Wakatipu High pupil, who competes in slalom, grand slalom, super G and downhill, spending winter days up the mountain and winter nights studying, waxing her skis and heading for bed.
In the New Zealand summer, she follows the snow, heading for the North American winter, most recently competing in Canada.
The selection for the New Zealand team comes on the back of being named a recipient of an Air New Zealand Aspiring Young New Zealander scholarship earlier this year.
At the moment she is on crutches and has her left leg in plaster, recovering from surgery for an injury she sustained while skiing in Canada in January, but it's still been a bumper year for the bright 17-year-old and she's determined it will only get better.
"I get out [of plaster] in three weeks and [four] days now.
"It's been quite a rough year - I've been concussed and had other leg injuries and I could only compete in 15 races out of 40.
"The injuries aren't great, but it's all just a part of the game. You just deal with it."
While the plaster is due to come off in less than a month, intensive rehabilitation means she will be unable to compete during the Southern Hemisphere winter, instead getting back up the mountain on her skis and working on getting her brain and feet synchronised again.
Combined with hours of gym training, it would be enough to see her "go pretty hard" during the northern hemisphere winter, aiming to get enough FIS points to compete at the 2008 World Junior Ski Championships.
Selection in the New Zealand Women's team was a huge achievement for the teenager, which meant training with New Zealand's best skiers and learning from the country's best coaches, fitness trainers and sports psychologists.
The icing on the cake, though, was the Air New Zealand scholarship, which will see her receive mentoring from former Olympic gold medallists Hamish Carter and Sarah Ulmer, and World Cup winner Claudia Reigler.
She will travel to Beijing in August with nine other scholarship recipients for part of the Olympic games.
"Three of the others have already been selected for Beijing. I'll just go over there for a week and pretty much do everything.
"I'm so lucky to have it."
Another benefit of the scholarship was a free flight anywhere in the world, one Taylor hoped to cash in to compete at the Junior World Championships.
Sponsorship Taylor receives also keeps her focused and aware she has to turn her potential into results if she's to continue in the sport she does "for fun".
Air New Zealand, Volkl, Adidas Eyewear, Underarmour and Queenstown gym Pulse Fitness had all shown tremendous support, she said.
"It's really hard at the moment, with an injury, to get results.
"They have to see the potential . . . and have to believe I will [turn that into results].
"Without the sponsorship I couldn't buy my own skis or gear [and] I couldn't go to the world juniors."
