BY FRED AKUETEY

A brilliant, straight-A student from Francis Parker School in Chicago, Payton Pitts, just got admitted to no fewer than six Ivy League schools. Pitts, 18, was accepted to Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Penn, Columbia, and Cornell. (In the United States, Ivy League universities refers to the group of eight elite universities with connotations of academic excellence and high selectivity in admission.)

The young man who had apparently waited impatiently for the news, told the ABC television network’s affiliate in Chicago, “It was a weight off my shoulders…” His mother is also thrilled by the news. Adrienne Pitts commented about her son’s “drive to succeed,” revealing to the television channel that Payton is not only a straight-A student, but also a star basketball player who also excels at playing the violin. Mom also pointed out the leadership skills of her son who, she said, revived his school’s Black Student Union several years ago.

As if the feat of gaining admission to six of the eight Ivy Leagues colleges was not enough, Payton Pitts was also accepted by several other prestigious universities, including Stanford and a historically black institution, Morehouse College.

Pitts’ school faculty, who share his and his mother’s excitement, point out his “warmth, insight and humility about his achievements,” not to mention his “respect for his classmates, teammates and teachers.”

Payton Pitts is among the latest genial Black students who have gained admission to America’s most prestigious higher institutions of learning in recent years.  To read some of our reporting about the matter, click here.