Tuesday 27 May 2014

This 17-Year-Old Nigerian-American's Academic Achievements Show That You Should Never Judge a Book by its Cover

Akintunde Ahmad, a senior at Oakland Tech in Oakland California, USA, has achieved a 5.0 GPA and 2,100 in the SAT. As a result of the achievements, he has his choice of attending Yale, Brown, Columbia or a slew of other prestigious universities but the people he meets don't believe him thanks to the clothes he wears and dreadlocks he sports so he has to carry around proof of his 5.0 GPA and sky high SAT score because he looks like a 'street dude.'

“People looking at me funny is so common that it doesn’t stick out for me anymore, it’s something that I’ve gotten used to.” Says Ahmad

To combat those snap judgments, Ahmad keeps photos of his impressive grades and 2100 SAT score on his phone and can flash them at any disbeliever he wants.

The 17-year-old Oakland Tech student proudly attests to his lifelong public education and wears the same baseball cap, gold chains, loose clothes and dreadlocks as many of his classmates.

While the outstanding student's record speaks for itself, some believe his appearance says a lot, too. And those folks have been doubting or overlooking him for much of his already accomplished life.

Thankfully for the promising teen, others like his Oakland school principal mother have always urged him not to give in to others' doubts.

'Like, my whole life, people have been telling me to stay on this path and everything will fall, the cards will fall like you want them to, so,' Ahmad told KGO

Giving him even more reason to gloat, Ahmad is also an accomplished baseball player and plays three musical instruments. But he manages to stay modest.
His mom Zarina recalled asking her son about his SAT score months back.

"'Oh I got it back...I have a 2100"' she recalled him saying. 'I'm like, "Wow! When were you going to tell me?"'

Ahmad has yet to make a decision about which school he's going to choose.

He thinks it will be either Brown or Yale and plans to study pre-law or pre-med.

Well done Ahmad.

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