Victory Yinka-Banjo, a 17-year-old Nigerian, has secured 19 fully funded scholarship offers from universities across the United States and Canada following her academic strides.
Admission documents and estimates of financial aid awards reveal that the scholarship offers are worth over $5 million.
The US varsities include Ivy League schools, Yale College, Princeton University, Harvard College, Brown University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Stanford University, Johns Hopkins University, and the University of Virginia.
Offers from Canada include 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.
Speaking to CNN about what she felt about the offer, Victory said “It still feels pretty unbelievable. I applied to so many schools because I didn’t even think any school would accept me.
“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!”
It is worthwhile to note that Victory is Born to Nigerian parents, Chika Yinka-Banjo, a senior lecturer at the University of Lagos and Adeyinka Banjo, procurement and supply chain executive.
Before the feat, Victory had dazzled many with her academic prowess.
She started pulling the weight of fame after she aced the 2020 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) with As in all her subjects.
The Whiz Kid was earlier adjudged the “Top in the World” in English as a second language (speaking endorsement) by the University of Cambridge International Examination (CIE).
This had followed her outstanding performance at the Cambridge IGCSE exam after she got As in all the six subjects she took.
Victory, who aspires to study Computational Biology, completed her secondary school in Nigeria.
She revealed that she is currently researching the various schools that offered her scholarship before deciding which to go for.
“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 added.
