Victory Yinka-Banjo, a Nigerian girl, who scored straight As in WASSCE, has received 19 full-ride scholarship offers from universities across US and Canada.
The 17-year-old secondary school graduate, was offered more than $5 million worth of scholarship money for an undergraduate program of study, according to admission documents and estimates of financial aid awards.
Asides from her WAEC, she also aced her IELTS, SAT, IGSSE with 99 percent success.
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.
Born to Nigerian parents, mother Chika Yinka-Banjo, a senior lecturer at the University of Lagos, and Father Adeyinka Banjo, a private sector procurement and supply chain executive, Victory was given potential full scholarships from the Ivy League schools, Yale College, Princeton University, Harvard College, and Brown University.
Other US scholarship offers included those from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Stanford University, Johns Hopkins University and the University of Virginia.
In Canada, Victory was 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.
Victory, who was a senior prefect in secondary school, added: “Their admissions processes are extremely selective. They only accept the best of the best. So, you can imagine how, on a daily basis, I have to remind myself that I actually got into these schools. It is surreal!”
The intelligent young girl rose to national prominence in late 2020 when she revealed that she scored 9 As in her West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) after her result was initially withheld by the exam body.
Furthermore, the smart teenager made the list of top 5 best candidates locally and globally in other examinations such as UTME, IELTS, SAT.
