Nigerian teen gets 19 scholarship offers worth $5million in US and Canada

A Nigerian teenage girl, Victory Yinka-Banjo has received 19 full scholarship offers from universities across the United States and Canada after scoring straight As in her West African Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).

The 17-year-old secondary school graduate, was offered more than $5 million dollars’ worth of scholarship money for an undergraduate program of study, according to admission documents and estimates of financial aid awards, CNN reports.

Born to Nigerian parents, Chika Yinka-Banjo, a senior lecturer at the University of Lagos and Adeyinka Banjo, 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.

Speaking with CNN, she 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.”