CHICAGO (WLS) – A Chicago-area 18-year-old has a lot to be proud of.
He graduated high school with acceptance letters to dozens of colleges and millions of dollars in scholarships.
It’s a payoff for many years of hard work.
Aaron Williams and his mother, Ericka Smith, have sifted through a stack of college acceptance letters.
The 18-year-old was accepted to 83 colleges and counting.
“They’re still coming in daily,” Smith said. “He gets emails, so they’re just a little bit behind.”
What’s also added up are the scholarships.
Between merit money and offers from colleges, Williams has earned more than $8 million dollars.
“To know that actually hours of me applying for these scholarships and having to log on my school links and just putting in effort and having a community to support me and guide me through this whole process, it’s kind of relieving to know that it actually paid off in the long run,” Williams said.
So has his hard work.
The Bogan High School graduate is a straight-A student and had a bold proclamation on his first day of class as a freshman.
“Came in to the principal and said I would be the class of 2025 valedictorian, and now it’s safe to say that I have done that,” Williams said.
Williams did become the valedictorian of his class.
The youngest of seven children also achieved another one of his goals, which was to earn more scholarship money than one of his older siblings, who earned $1 million.
“It kind of pushed me harder, because you know how siblings have that sibling rivalry to see who can do better and stuff like that? It kind of motivated me in a way to see how far I can go with it,” Williams said.
As for where Williams will go in the fall? He’s excited to attend Northern Illinois University, which gave him a free ride.
He plans to major in electrical engineering.
“He is who he is because of community, because of principals who cared, because of those biological aunts that cared, the non-biological ones,” Smith described.
Williams says he also wants to be the valedictorian of his class when he graduates NIU.
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