17-year-old Victory Yinka-Banjo has clinched 19 full-ride scholarships from American and Canadian Ivy-league schools.
CNN reports that the 17-year-old high school graduate was offered more than $5 million dollars’ worth of scholarship money for any undergraduate course of study.
Victory said “It feels pretty unbelievable. I applied to so many schools because I didn’t even think any school would accept me.
Hetty Os Blog had reported her feat at the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) and the University of Cambridge International Examination (CIE).
READ: Victory Yinka-Banjo Scores Straight ‘A’s in WAEC and All A Stars in Cambridge IGCSE
Born to Nigerian parents, Chika Yinka-Banjo, a senior lecturer at the University of Lagos and Adeyinka Banjo, a private sector procurement and supply chain executive, the young lady was given potential full-ride scholarships from American Ivy League schools including Yale College, Princeton University, Harvard College,and Brown University.
Other US universities include the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Stanford University, Johns Hopkins University and the University of Virginia.
in Canada, Victory got offers from Lester B Pearson to study in the University of Toronto and the Karen McKlein International Leader of Tomorrow (KMILOT) from the University of British Colombia.
She was also raised in Nigeria where she has become an inspiration to students her age and younger.
The teenage girl told CNN that her multiple scholarship offers “have made me stand taller, smile wider and part myself in the back more often.”
According to her, “Their admission processes are extremely selective. They only accept the best of the best. So, you can imagine how, on a daly basis, I have to remind myself that I actually got into these schools. It is surreal !”
Academic achievements:
Victory was a senior prefect during her time in high school. She rose to prominence in the 2020 after she scored straight ‘A’s in her West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).
A couple of months earlier, she was rated “Top in the World” in English as a second language (speaking endorsement) by the University of Cambridge International Examination (CIE) when she aced the Cambridge IGCSE exam with A* (A-star) in all six subjects she sat for.
The young Nigerian who credits her achievements to faith, parental guidance, discipline and hard work, said the scholarships “Have made me truly proud about the hard work I have put into several areas of my life over the years. I am slowly beginning to realise that I deserve them.”
She said she hopes to study Computational Biology but is still weighing her options on which school to settle for having been wood by many prestigious institutions.
Speaking with CNN, she said , “I am still doing my research on some schools that are at the top of my list, like Stanford, Harvard, MIT, Duke, Johns Hopkins, and trying to compare and contrast all of them thoroughly.”
Inspiration to aspiring students:
Chika, Victory’s mother said her daughter’s story could inspire other young Nigerians.
“It is noteworthy that she is not one of the Nigerian-Americans who often get into these schools because of there advantage of being born and bred in the US.
“She completed her secondary school here (in Nigeria). It would be great if her story can be used to inspire the youths of our country,” Chika told CNN.
While waiting to get into college, she spends some of her free time tutoring other university admission seekers through the radio on key subjects likes math, English Language, biology, chemistry and physics.