Florida high school grad accepted to all 8 Ivy League schools

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — A Florida high school graduate is Harvard-bound this fall after accomplishing a rare feat: being accepted into every Ivy League college.

>> Read more trending news

According to CNN, 17-year-old Ashley Adirika learned in the spring that she had been accepted into the eight prestigious universities, which include Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth and the University of Pennsylvania. The then-Miami Beach Senior High School senior took to her computer on Ivy Day – when the schools reveal which students have been admitted – and discovered acceptance letters from all of them, she told the news outlet.

“I remember crying a lot and just being extremely surprised,” said the recent grad, who also received good news from Stanford, Vanderbilt, Emory and other high-ranking universities.

She shared her final decision in an April 30 Instagram post.

“It’s official!” she wrote. “I’m so excited to call Harvard my home for the next four years.”

Adirika said her mother, who emigrated from Nigeria 30 years ago, and her siblings empowered and supported her to pursue her dreams and succeed, “Good Morning America” reported. She did just that by making her mark on her high school debate team and creating a mentoring organization called Our Story, Our Worth, according to the news outlet.

Next, Adirika plans to study government at Harvard and later attend law school, CNN reported.

“I am really passionate about policy and using policy to empower communities,” she told CNN. “And so in the short term, for me, that looks like becoming a lawyer. But in the long term, I want to use that as a platform to do work in policy.”

©2022 Cox Media Group