She always knew her hard work would pay off!
A Georgia teen got accepted into almost 50 colleges and received more than $1 million in scholarship offers, WSB-TV Atlanta reports.
Makenzie Thompson is a senior at Westlake High School in Atlanta, Georgia. There she is an honors student who is involved in a number of extracurricular activities, serving as Senior Class President, co-captain of the dance team, and taking time outside of school to volunteer in the community and do work-based learning at a local veterinarian clinic.
Recently, Makenzie garnered quite a bit of fanfare when her college acceptance letters began rolling in. In total, she’s been accepted to nearly 50 colleges and received $1.3 million in scholarship offers.
“We have Delaware State with $64,000, Xavier with $100,000… Tuskegee with full tuition and books. We also have Wingate with $128,000…So up here I have 48. I have 49 acceptances but we ran out of room,” Makenzie exclaimed to reporters as she pointed to a list of schools she’s been accepted to and scholarship offers on the wall at Westlake.
Her parents say they are proud and extremely excited but not surprised because their daughter has always been focused and goal-oriented.
“She knew what she wanted. And she knew what it was going to take to get there, her father, Stephen Thompson said.
“We were ecstatic. I said oh my god. 1.3 million and they’re giving you this just based on paper,” her mother Jennifer Thompson added.
Makenzie said she too was overjoyed to see that all her hard work had paid off.
“Once I hit a million I was like that’s kind of crazy. Like people don’t make a million in their lifetime…I am extremely proud of myself. It’s been a long time coming. A lot of long nights,” she said.
Principal Jarvis Adams said Makenzie is extremely driven and “everything that she does is for excellence and academics.” While the teen has been accepted to a number of elite institutions, she plans on attending Tuskegee University to study animal science. Her ultimate goal is to become a veterinarian, something her community says she’ll have no problem achieving.
Congratulations, Makenzie!
Photo Courtesy of WSB-TV Atlanta