18 year old Akintunde Ahmad (pictured above) doesn't look like your average brilliant student. He could be and has been mistaken for a street thug, because of his looks, his sweatpants, gold chain and dreadlocks, but you know what they say, never judge a book by its cover.
The Oakland teen, who is a senior at Technical High School, has a 5.0 GPA, scored a 2100 on his SATs and has been accepted into Yale, Brown and Columbia.
Tunde was recently on the Ellen Degeneres show were he announced he has decided to attend Yale. The talk show host invited Tunde to her show after hearing about the many obstacles he had to face to get to where he is today. Ellen wanted to do something for him that he'll never forget. Continue..
"I didn't even know you could get a 5.0 GPA ... Have you always been a good student?" Ellen asked Tunde.
"Yeah, I guess it started when I was young - just got on like a good path, when I got home from school after practice and sports, always right to homework," Tunde said.
Ellen presented Tunde with a check for $12,000 to help with tuition....
Tunde's mum Zarina, in an interview with ABC some weeks back, said Tunde didn't even tell her about his scores immediately.
"I asked him about his SAT score months back. "Oh I got it back...I have a 2100" he said and I'm like, "Wow! When were you going to tell me?"
Tunde's story is a one of courage and determination to win against all odds. Despite living in a tough neighborhood, where he saw violence everyday, Tunde was able to steer clear of the distractions that often befell African-American teenagers.
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