BRADLEY, Ark. (KSLA) – One student at a small school in southern Lafayette County earned not only a near-perfect ACT score but also was offered more than $1 million in scholarships.
There were only 27 students to graduate this year at Bradley High School. However, one student from this small school received big recognition throughout the nation.
“I have always been focused on my academics, making sure I had all A’s, keeping my grade-point average where it needed to be,” Charlie Wilkerson said.
He was co-valedictorian of the senior class at Bradley High School and was offered college scholarships exceeding $1 million.
“I was in shock when I found out I had reached that one million mark,” he said.
Wilkerson attributes his academic success to the teachers and faculty at Bradley schools. He said he had some critiques about his success coming from a small school, but he hopes his example will help those in similar situations.
“This really show no matter where you come from, you can achieve greatness because I’m the forefront. If you have the mind-set, you can do anything that you want to,” Wilkerson said.
The co-valedictorian also earned a score of 34 on his ACT, a standardized test for college entrance. A perfect score for the test is 36. With the numerous scholarship offers, Wilkerson said he has made his selection, which was not a hard decision according to him.
“Ever since I was 5 years old, I knew the answer to this question. I will be attending Louisiana State University to major in mathematics with a focus on secondary education, as well as double majoring in sports administration.”
Bradley school leaders said Wilkerson’s academic success proves that being in bigger schools is not always better.
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