Meet the 17-year-old brilliant Nigerian-American teenager Ashley Adirika who wins $4m (N5.7b) scholarship to study at Harvard University.
- Ashley Adirika, 17, from Miami Gardens, Florida, has chosen to attend Harvard University after graduating from Miami Beach Senior High School on June 1
- The former student body president is one of the few students who earned acceptance and scholarships to all eight Ivy League colleges
- Adrika spent every morning and afternoon commuting on a bus to and from her high school, which is nearly two hours away from her home
Adirika’s exceptional academic achievements granted her the
opportunity to apply to Ivy League universities in the United States.
Having graduated from Miami Beach Senior High School in
Florida, US, Ashley Adirika has harbored a lifelong aspiration of attending an
Ivy League University.
On Ivy Day, when she opened her computer to review her
applications, Ashley Adirika was astonished to discover that all the Ivy League
universities had accepted her and offered her scholarships.
The schools that extended acceptance and scholarship offers
to Ashley Adirika included Brown University, Columbia University, Dartmouth
College, Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University,
and Yale University.
In her jubilant revelation, Adirika also shared that she
received acceptance letters from Stanford University, Vanderbilt University,
and Emory University, further amplifying her excitement.
“I just decided to shoot my shot at all of them and see if
it would land. And I had no idea I would get accepted into all of them. On Ivy
Day, I remember crying a lot and just being extremely surprised,” Ashely told
CNN.
According to reports, the probability of gaining admission
to one of the elite universities typically falls between three and eight
percent.
Since 2018, the most exclusive schools in the US have
accepted less than 12% of their applicants. In 2022, Yale accepted 4.5%,
Columbia welcomed 3.7%, and Harvard greeted just 3.2% of its future pupils,
marking the lowest number ever in the university’s history, as reported by CNN.
In addition to her streak of stellar grades, Adirika is
renowned as a formidable presence in the realm of speech and debate.
“I’m someone who loves to learn new things, and so debate gave me that opportunity,” she said.
“But more than anything, it just gave me the platform to
talk about things that I believed in and talk about things that were important
to me. And so that is something that I am just forever indebted to Carol City
for introducing me to that platform.”
From middle school onward, her exemplary skills served as a
precursor to what the future held in store for her.
“Everybody knew Ashley because of how smart she was,” Carol
City Middle School teacher Bess Rodriguez shared.
“She had test scores through the roof; she’s involved in all
different activities. So I recruited her, and she had never debated before,”
Rodriguez added.