By Sean Yoes, Baltimore AFRO Editor, syoes@afro.com
Anxiety is pervasive in the hearts and minds of millions of high school seniors across the nation, as college acceptance and rejection letters are being mailed out, carrying the hopes and heartbreak of many college hopefuls.
However, one Maryland high school senior is floating on cloud nine right now after being accepted to all eight Ivy League schools.
Mekhi Johnson has been accepted at all eight Ivy League schools, the first Gilman student to do so in the history of the prestigious school. (Courtesy photo)
After hearing a radio story when he was six, about a student who was accepted to all eight Ivy League Schools, Mekhi Johnson, a senior at the prestigious Gilman School in Northeast Baltimore, apparently told his mother, “I’m going to do that one day.”
That day came this year when Johnson, a National Merit Scholarship Program Commended Student with a 98.1 average, achieved the extremely rare feat. Johnson was also accepted at the University of Chicago.
According to Gilman officials, there were more than 280,000 applications from hopeful students to Ivy League schools last year, but less than five applications achieved the honor of being accepted at all eight schools. Johnson is the first Gilman student to do so.
Johnson engages in several extracurricular activities at Gilman including, editing the yearbook and literary magazine; playing in the jazz band and drumline; singing with “the Traveling Men,” Gilman’s a capella group and Johnson is president of Gilman’s Diversity Council.
Johnson has not yet chosen which college he will attend.
