A Los Angeles teen who got accepted to an astonishing 65 colleges is headed to Columbia University with a dream to pay it forward.<\/p>\n
“It’s coming all at once. It’s very fast, so I’m trying to take it into gratitude,” 17-year-old Lamont Newell said.<\/p>\n
What makes the accomplishment all the more impressive \u2013 his family experienced homelessness for a good part of his childhood.<\/p>\n
“The reason I have the determination and ambition and passion to do what I do is for my community,” Newell said. “I wouldn’t even be in this situation without my community at all, to be honest with you.”<\/p>\n
The valedictorian plans to put his skills and talent to work here in New York come this fall, accepting a full ride to Columbia, where he will study industrial engineering.<\/p>\n
His dream is just as epic as his 4.4 GPA.<\/p>\n
“The park that I grew up in, that’s when I learned how to code,” Newell said. “So I’m hoping to build an institution at that park to help Black kids, how to build skills in STEM and coding and building computers, just like I did at home.”<\/p>\n
While he has plenty of mentors and teachers who helped him along the way, it was his mother, he says, who encouraged him to chase the impossible.<\/p>\n
“As a parent, it is your duty to find out what your kids are good at,” his mother said.<\/p>\n
“Even from a young age, she put me in engineering camp, summer camps,” Newell said. “I didn’t just get my skills from the school.”<\/p>\n
He says he’s most looking forward to meeting new people when he takes on the Big Apple.<\/p>\n
“I’m hoping that New York brings the socialness out of me,” Newell said.<\/p>\n