Victory Yinka-Banjo, 17, is celebrating after receiving 19 full scholarship offers from universities across the United States and Canada.
The Nigerian teenager has been offered more than $5 million worth of scholarship money for an undergraduate program of study. Several Ivy League schools have been vying for Victory’s attention. Yale College, Princeton University, Harvard College, and Brown University were among the colleges eager to entice Victory with their resources.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Stanford University, Johns Hopkins University and the University of Virginia also sent Victory offers from the U.S.
Victory was also offered the Lester B. Pearson scholarship from the University of Toronto and the Karen McKellin International Leader of Tomorrow (KMILOT) scholarship from the University of British Columbia.
“It still feels pretty unbelievable. I applied to so many schools because I didn’t even think any school would accept me,” Victory told CNN.
This is not the first time Victory has hit the headlines.
Last year, Victory was crowned as the world’s best candidate in English as a second language (speaking component) by the University of Cambridge International Examinations (CIE) after achieving six A stars in the 2019 Cambridge IGSCE.
According to the publication, Victory is born to Nigerian parents, Chika Yinka-Banjo, a senior lecturer at the University of Lagos, and Adeyinka Banjo, a private sector procurement and supply chain executive.
In high school, Victory earned many titles. Senior Prefect, Head Girl, President of the Students’ Representative Council, Secretary of the Students’ Representative Council, President of the Press Club, Founder of the Coding Club and Lead Violinist in the School Orchestra.
She has also actively served in her church since 2017 as Lead Service Director and is currently a Technovation Student Ambassador.
She gushed to CNN over the offers, telling them the offers “have made me stand taller, smile wider, and pat myself on the back more often.”
Victory is looking forward to studying Computational Biology but is still mulling over her options as to which offer to accept.
“I am still doing research on some schools that are at the top of my list, like Stanford, Harvard, MIT, Duke, Johns Hopkins, and just trying to compare and contrast all of them thoroughly,” she told CNN.
Congratulations, Victory.
