"It's still unbelievable," is what high school senior Ariana Alexander said when she thinks of breaking a city-wide school record for the most scholarship money.
This year's graduating class of Chicago's Kenwood Academy total 371 students boasts of $39.6 million in scholarship money, three of which are gates scholars.
Not only is Ariana the valedictorian of Kenwood Academy, class of 2015, she's also racked up over $3 million dollars in scholarship money alone.
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"I applied to over 20 schools" she say. "I got accepted into 26 schools, including six of the eight Ivys and that was a chunk of change right there. And then I'm a Gates Scholars and that was big chunk there."
So that means in the fall, Ariana has her choice of any college or university and she has chosen Penn."As I researched the school, I fell in love and been working hard to get there."
She been working on it since the 7th grade, never getting any grade below a B and even then it was in an AP honors class.
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With support of her parents, teachers and three older high achieving siblings, the bar was already set high for Arianna. But she not only met but exceeded those expectations when she graduated this June with a 5.1 GPA.
Kenwood's principal Dr. Gregory Jones says he gets students to think early on college is the goal.
"It's part of the Kenwood fabric," he says. "Students know when they enter Kenwood in the fall as freshmen, this is what the expectation is."
For the past four years, at least one Kenwood Academy student has been awarded the prestigious Gates Scholarship. Last year, the school had five Gates Scholars and the year before three. In 2012 there were two and five in 2011. And Kenwood does it without being a selective enrollment school, which gets to pick the best of the best students.
Ariana wants to eventually own a number of restaurants, providing both delicious and nutritious cuisine from near and far.
