“It was crazy. My mom sat next to me and it was just letter after letter after letter. I couldn’t believe it,” Harold told DailyMail as
he recounted the five minutes when acceptance emails came in from Yale,
Harvard, Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Pennsylvania, Princeton,
Johns Hopkins, NYU, MIT, Vanderbilt and SUNY Stony Brook. Following the
overflow of great news, he did something any teenager would to — he went
to Chipotle with his friends for a half-steak, half-chicken burrito
bowl for his “perfect” celebration.
With a staggering score of 2270 on his SAT’s, it’s clear Ekeh is a
scholar. At Elmont Memorial High School in Long Island, New York, he
serves are the editor-in-chief of his student newspaper, as well as
chief executive of the Model United Nations.
And it’s no wonder why Ekeh wrote a personal essay that resonated
with every college he went after. In it, he described his family’s
struggle in fitting in after immigrating to America, as well as his
parents’ continuous inspiration for him to keep pushing for his best.
“No matter how many times they got knocked
down, they stayed positive, and kept telling me that the secret to
success in unbridled resolve,” Ekeh says.
What a kid! We love these kinds of stories because young Black men
need encouragement right now more than ever and it’s kids like Ekeh who
prove that Black excellence is abundant.
And the young scholar humbly appreciates his gift, but he knows it’s not magic or luck, “I
just worked hard and took every opportunity that was afforded to me.”
He knows the sky is the limit and even preaches that same sermon to his
younger brothers.
But that doesn’t mean his decision will be easy.
“I’m torn because each school offers
something different, and there are so many different things I’m looking
for,’ he said. ‘I want to go to a good school where I can study hard,
but I also want somewhere where I feel comfortable; somewhere I could
imagine calling home,” he says. Harold has his sight set on Yale, but is
open to his golden opportunities.
When he finally does choose a school, Ekeh says he is thinking of
going into neurosurgery to study Alzheimer’s because his grandmother is
currently suffering from it.
His proud parents have been sharing the
good news on their Facebook pages, exclaiming, “Bless the LORD! Congrats
Son, in Jesus’ name!”
Paul Ekeh, Harold’s father, says, “It
was like a thunderbolt. I didn’t doubt that he could achieve good
things but it was the sweep that made it so different. I don’t know how
to say how I feel. It’s amazing.!”
It really is! Keep shining Harold Ekeh!
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