Next year jitters are a little different for one Black high school student raised in D.C. He was accepted to five Ivy League colleges for the 2014-2015 school year.
Avery Coffey grew up in a single-parent home in Ward 8, one of the poorest areas of the city. Now, however, he has a choice of attending Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Brown and the University of Pennsylvania. Four of the universities that accepted him have already offered financial aid packages, however a package from Harvard is still pending.
Coffey, 17 attends Benjamin Banneker Academic High School in Northwest and has a 4.3 grade point average. He also plays four sports including baseball, basketball, tennis and soccer. According to Fox News, he wants to major in finance. “I guess probably the CEO of an investment (or management consulting) firm. I guess pretty much overseeing acquisitions or transactions between large companies, hopefully, Fortune 500 companies,” Coffey told Fox.
News reports indicate Coffey is still deciding between the universities, but told Fox he is leaning toward Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania.
Coffey is coming from one of D.C.’s aspiring academic high schools known for having a rigorous academic curriculum. Banneker’s 439 students are not allowed to bring a cell phone into the school building or go to their lockers during the school day, Fox News said.
The school is the only D.C. Public School authorized to offer students the opportunity to earn the prestigious International Baccalaureate Diploma (IB).
According to Banneker’s website, the IB Diploma Programme incorporates the best elements of several national educational systems with a focus on academic rigor, an international perspective and the interrelationship of all knowledge.
