Check out this amazing girl who was accepted to more than 50 colleges!
Video credit: Good Morning America
Georgia teen was accepted into more than 50 schools and awarded over $1 million in scholarship funding, now she is spreading hope for some people.
Jakelia Baker, 17, is valedictorian of Lucy C. Laney High School in Augusta and spent hours applying to colleges and for scholarships, according to WJBF.com.
She’s been accepted to some of the best in the country, including Penn State University and the University of Michigan.
“My momma kept me on track,” she told WJBF. “We would use weekends and sometimes when I was at games I would be doing college applications.”
By “games,” she means basketball, volleyball, golf, tennis, and soccer, all teams she played on at Laney. Beyond sports and academics, the scholar also served on the National Honor Society, student council, math team, and academic decathlon.
“Once volleyball is over then you have basketball and then basketball math team academic Decathlon still and then a little bit of student council, National Honor Society, and then after Christmas break you have soccer, tennis, and golf and then a little bit of marching band still, and then math team competition starts coming in,” Jakelia told WFXG.
Even with all that, she maintained a 4.1 GPA. Of course, that schedule didn’t leave a lot of time for other pursuits.
“I couldn’t hang out with my friends, or I would miss out on parties or other opportunities, and I would have challenges at school,” she told WJBF.
“Every now and then you’ll have the students who come along and they’re like that go-to student in the school,”
Bill Dunbar, Jakelia’s AP Literature teacher, told WFXG. “If you want to show off the school, you pull in Jakelia Baker.”
She also credits the support of her mother, retired Army veteran Denise Richards, for keeping her on track, calling her “my top motivator.”
Baker said she applied to around 65 schools and was able to in part because she reached out and was eligible for application fee exemptions or waivers.
Her advice for high schoolers applying to college is to never give up.
“The process will be hard, but keep pushing and you will reach your goals,” she said.
Richards said her daughter is “a mixture between shy and outgoing,” and said talked about the family as a whole, too: “Our whole family, we kind of dance and laugh a lot.”
“She doesn’t wanna have no regrets, that’s the kind of person she is,” the Richards added.
“Anything that she puts her mind to, she exceeds and excels.”
Richards added that she is “super proud and happy” for her daughter.
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