A young mother has graduated with top honors and scholarships from at least 25 colleges amounting to more than $1 million. Lamyrical Harris from Trezevant High School in Memphis, Tennessee, revealed how she managed to graduate as a valedictorian, even after she found out she was pregnant during her junior year.
“I was scared,” Harris told the news station. “It just made me go 10 times harder.”
“She came to school. She took care of business, and her motivation has been her child,” Assistant Principal Yolanda Sherrod told WREG.
Harris said that after having her son, there were times she was struggling to even walk. But a teacher from the school encouraged her to keep going.
“I want him [my son] to be valedictorian of his class, and I want him to have over a million dollars in scholarships,” Harris told WREG.
“At the end of junior year, I had $200,000. By the time I hit senior year, I was at 500,000.”
The scholarships kept coming, and Harris kept studying. It was only days before her graduation that she found out she had earned more than $1 million in scholarships—$1,244,298, to be exact.
According to WREG, Harris has not decided which college she will attend. But she said she will return to her high school to give back one day.
A Facebook post was shared from the high school to congratulate Harris on May 19.
“BREAKING NEWS!” the post read. “We have our first MILLION DOLLAR SCHOLAR in Trezevant history.”
“Our valedictorian, Lamyrical Harris, has been offered a total of $1,244,298 in ACADEMIC scholarships, making her our first to receive this honor.”
The school said that while they have had amazing athletes in the past, Harris is the first to earn such a high amount “solely in academic scholarships.”
The post ended with “Congratulations Lamyrical!”
Congratulatory messages flooded the social media post shortly after it was shared.
The school posted a video to Facebook on May 19 showing a group of graduates from the school’s Class of 2019:
The school noted on its Facebook page that all of its top 10 graduates this year were young ladies.
“Did you know this year’s TOP 10 are all young ladies? Now that’s BLACK GIRL MAGIC!” the post read.
Meanwhile, in another high school in Memphis, Tennessee, a 17-year-old received more than 50 scholarships amounting to more than $3 million—while homeless.
“After my father passed, we fell behind on bills and we ended up getting evicted from our home Feb. 21 of this year,” Mosley said.
He also told the news station that he and his family have been staying at “For the Kingdom,” a camping site and nonprofit that helps urban children in the right direction.
“We were blessed to have For the Kingdom,” he said, adding that college may have not been an option if it weren’t for their support.
“When I heard that I got $3 million, I was more than elated and excited and astonished that it was that much,” he told WHBQ.
He said that time management was the toughest challenge because it was still during the most stressful part of his senior year.
But he managed to keep a 4.3 GPA. On May 19, during his graduation speech, Mosley thanked his teachers for having faith in him.
“Never let your current situation, whatever circumstances you’re going through, be a mountain that you can’t climb.”
