Kayla Willis was accepted into 31 colleges and offered more $900,000 in scholarships, showing us what Black Girl Magic can achieve.
By Breanna Edwards, Essence
It’s not every day one gets accepted into 31 colleges and is offered more than $900,000 in scholarships to boot. It’s definitely something worth sharing, but Kayla Willis, a senior at Westlake High School in South Fulton, Georgia still hesitated, first asking her dad if it was appropriate.
“He was like, ‘You need to show the world how great you are’,” Willis told 11Alive.
And her dad was right, #BlackGirlMagic should never be denied. The teen ended up sharing the photo – showing her acceptances posted under a photo of her which was displayed in the senior hall in her high school – taking up quite a bit of space.
https://twitter.com/kaegenic/status/1099712472649478144
“I posted, turned off my phone, clocked into work and I just keep hearing a bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing,” she told the news station. “And I’m like, what is going on? Am I going viral right now?”
“They’re missing a few but I’m not going to complain or brag because I still have a lot underneath there,” she added.
As of Thursday, four days after Willis originally posted her photo, her tweet has racked up over 32,800 retweets and more than 147,000 likes.
The real magic? Those 31 schools don’t even represent all of the acceptances Willis has yet. She sent out 50 applications, so more good news could be on the way in the mail right now.
But for the teen, it’s not just about showing her greatness, it’s also is about those who may be concerned about their SAT scores, even though they may be great students. She has what she considers an average SAT score of 1160, with a 3.95 GPA to average it up.
“To show them that someone who made an average SAT score who has good grades – someone can make it and do that type of thing,” she said.
“I wanted to inspire people and show them that you can actually dream big and get to where you want to go,” she added.
And another tip Willis shared for those of you still applying to colleges – ask and ye shall receive. It is common knowledge that many college applications come with steep fees, but Willis said she simply asked schools if they would waive those fees – only applying to those who agreed – and ending up only paying for postage on her applications.
Despite the fact that Willis may have more acceptances rolling in, and she has plenty of options to consider, the savvy teen has already made her choice. She’s accepted a full-ride scholarship from the iconic Fisk University, an HBCU in Nashville, Tennessee, where she intends to major in International Business and Spanish.
This article originally appeared in Essence.
