A Philadelphia high school senior who was accepted into his first-choice college has gone viral for his ecstatic reaction.
Amir Staten, 17, is a senior at Germantown Friends School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It has been a long-held dream of Amir to attend Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, and when he received his acceptance letter, nothing could hold back his joy.
“The day he found out was Feb. 16,” Amir’s mom, 44-year-old Philadelphia-based Karlynne Staten, told The Epoch Times. “My day before that was horrible; a student at my job was jumped by a group of kids. Amir came and picked me up from my job. As I walked the steps to my house, he told me that he received an email from Morehouse.”
When Amir opened the email, the word, “Congratulations” stood out to Karlynne.
“As he took in the good news he began to run up the street,” Karlynne said. “Normally he is very reserved so it was a shock to see him so excited!”
Since the video was posted on Instagram it has received almost 30,000 views.
“The outpouring of love for my ’sonshine' has been amazing, we feel so blessed,” Karlynne said. “I cried so much reading everyone’s comments, he really touched a lot of people.”
Amir plans to study sociology since he wants to help minorities and feels there isn’t enough Black male presence in the field. He has been able to pay his enrolment fees thanks to kind donations from people all over the world. Extra funds will go toward tuition and living expenses.
“Amir has been on honor roll his whole life,” his proud mom told The Epoch Times. “He has a business putting together furniture and household items. He’s the captain of his varsity basketball team and a star high jumper. He enjoys going to church, hanging with his twin sister [Angel], going on family vacations, and mentoring his peers and the youth.”
For Amir’s mom, the news of him getting into Morehouse College meant a lot. She said: “As a single mother who has not had the best life, this made it all worth it.”
