18-year-old, Michelle Harvey has set a record as the first female black valedictorian of Thomas R. Proctor High School, United States, and was awarded a scholarship to study for her undergraduate degree.
Michelle is a teen from Cornhill who made history as Thomas R. Proctor High School’s first female black valedictorian 25 years after the school had its first ever black valedictorian who was a male.
She also made history as the second black valedictorian since the school’s inception 72 years ago. ”I don’t consider myself the smartest kid. It’s just the fact that I’m not lazy. I’ve been up many nights studying,” Michelle said.
“The reason I stand out is I work harder than other kids. Growing up in the neighborhood, I was hanging out with a lot of kids who were lazy. They were smart, but they chose to do other things,” she added.
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Michelle stated that she got her determination from her mother who grew up “in the projects” in Rome and her motivation from her father, an ex-military man who died while she was in school.
“He was always proud to see us get good grades and then we’d strive harder to make him proud. I just really wanted to push hard and do my best for him,” she said.
Michelle’s outstanding performance earned her a National Achievement Scholarship and acceptance to Vassar College, New York in the United States. She hopes she can inspire other students who think they can not succeed because of their backgrounds or personal challenges.
“I’m more relatable to a lot of people. I grew up in the same place as everyone else. There’s nothing special in my background; I’m not fancy … I really feel like I’m setting an example, like if I can do it, they can do it, too,” she said.
Michelle mentioned that she will be using her achievement scholarship to study for a bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience and Behavioral studies at Vassar College, United States.
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