A teen in the Third Ward will have to choose between twenty colleges this month. Lamar High School senior Micheal Brown, 17, has a full ride to each university where he applied.
Brown said it was a slow build up of excitement as his acceptances started coming in last November through March. Brown will now begin visiting schools to decide which he will attend this fall.
“I never imagined this would happen,” Brown said, “but I’m really happy about it.”
Michael Brown celebrates his acceptance to Stanford. The 17-year-old from Houston, Texas, applied to 20 of the best universities in the US and was admitted to every single one with a full ride — and $260,000 in additional scholarship offers https://t.co/YZZdYtKOB5 pic.twitter.com/nIUB14cYjg
— CNN (@CNN) March 31, 2018
Trisha Cornwell is the Executive Director of EMERGE, a program Brown was involved with, since the 10th grade. The group "empowers & prepares high-performing students from underserved communities to attend and graduate from selective colleges & universities across the nation," according to its mission statement.
"We're so excited for Micheal. He's really a prime example of what happens when talent and preparation meet opportunity and access. And that's what we do at EMERGE," Cornwell told News 88.7.
"Our real focus is ensuring the most talented students in Houston get the same opportunity and access as their wealthy peers from some of the most elite private schools in the city. My hope is that Micheal's success inspires other students from his neighborhood, and neighborhoods like his across the city, to reach higher, and know they can apply to the most selective colleges across the country and get in," Cornwell said.
Brown said he has narrowed down his choices to Harvard, Princeton, Northwestern, Yale, University of Pennsylvania, Stanford, Georgetown, and Vanderbilt. He attributed his success to the mentors he's had while growing up.
"Especially looking forward, I think something that's going to be important to me is like the simple idea of giving back to others the things that have been given to me," Brown said.
Brown wants to major in political science and become a lawyer or politician. He said he wants to help create change in his community, citing the election of President Barack Obama as highly influential.