LOOP NEWS -http://www.loopjamaica.com/content/jamaican-born-teens-stunning-acceptance-top-us-universities
Jamaal Willis, an 18-year-old Jamaican-American student, has been accepted to six Ivy League universities in the United States. The teen who attends Barstow High School in Barstow, California has decided to attend Harvard University in the fall of 2021 on a full scholarship.
According to ABC7 Eyewitness News, Willis came to the United States just four years ago, and was from a low-income household.
At his high school, Willis excelled in academics and sports.
The Jamaican native told the news outlet in an interview last Monday, that he was accepted into Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, Duke, Columbia, University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth, Georgetown, UCLA, UC Berkeley, Cornell, UVA, UC San Diego, Chapman University, University of Oregon and Penn State universities.
He was waitlisted at Yale, Brown University, University of Chicago and UCI, and was rejected admission into NYU and Northwestern.
Willis' mother, Tanya Distant Goulbourne, in an interview with Eyewitness News, said:
"I'm overwhelmed, I'm overjoyed... Proud is an understatement".
In explaining that she had no knowledge about the college admissions process before moving to the USA, Goulbourne said her son remained focussed throughout the process.
"My hope was that he got an opportunity to be as successful as he can be," she added.
Meanwhile, Willis disclosed that his career path will hopefully see him becoming a "civil rights litigator and to serve in public office by running for senate", the news report shared.
Willis' advised other high school students to "try and give other people hope.
"No matter what kind of stigma your community gets, or stereotypes that people put on you, don't just sit there and take it and be a victim to all of that, a victim to society," she said, according to the news report.
"Always try and follow your own path and just be who you are unapologetically," she added.
