A 17-year-old Georgia student is manifesting what Black Girl Magic embodies as she has been accepted into 48 colleges and earned scholarships in excess of $600,000 while at it.
According to WFXL, Kenyari Sawyer, a 17-year-old senior at Monroe High School, has applied for admission at almost 100 colleges over the last six months. And she eventually got accepted to nearly half of the educational institutions without having to bear any costs during the application process.
In an interview with the news outlet, the brilliant teen shared how she initiated the application process. “I started applying on August 1. The first 2 colleges I applied to were Cleveland and Mississippi and I did not think I was going to get accepted into those,” she recalled. “Then I was like this is how it goes? This is an easy process and I just started going from there.”
Among the schools Kenyari got accepted into with scholarships include Dillard University ($40,000 /$10,000 per year), Mary Baldwin University ($88,000/$22,000 per year), Spring Hill College ($24,000/$6,000 per year), Norte Dame of Maryland ($80,000/$20,000 per year), and New England College ($32,000 per year).
The rest are Arizona State University ($62,000/$15,500 per year), Miles College ($10,000/$2,500 per year), Jacksonville University ($116,000 /$29,000 per year), and Grace College ($5,000/$1250 per year and $48,000/$12,000 per year).
Thanks to application waivers, Kenyari said she did not have to bear any application fee costs. “So you can either receive a fee waiver from the school or you can use the common app or coalition app which waives the application fee based on financial needs,” the teen said.
Besides being a 4.0 student, Kenyari is also studying at Albany State University. “I’m taking AP English and Composition, AP Biology, and AP Statistics. At Albany Tech, I recently just took Juvenile Delinquency, but I am done with that class now. Now, I am taking a survey of American History,” she said, adding that her aim is to study at one of the top five schools of her choice.
She also told WFXL she wants to major in criminal justice and eventually become a lawyer. “I want to start my own law firm, become a defense attorney, and go up the ranks from there,” she said.
Kenyari also mentioned her mother as being her biggest inspiration. She reportedly had to skip college as she was pregnant with Kenyari at the time.
In an effort to share how she went about her application process with her peers, Kenyari held an informational session at her school on Tuesday. “Do not be scared and go for what you want. If you want it, go for it, and do not let people talk down on you. You said I can’t do this, but I can and I’m going to show you,” the teen advised her peers.
