LA teen, accepted to 65 colleges, heading to Columbia U. in NYC on a full ride

The graduating senior balanced academics, leadership and perseverance while securing dozens of college acceptances.

Lamont Newell is 17 years old, holds a 4.4 GPA, and has been accepted to 65 colleges, including Notre Dame, Dartmouth and Columbia University, where he will study industrial engineering on a full scholarship.

As theGrio has reported, Black men continue to face significant barriers to college enrollment across the country, and HBCUs and universities alike are pushing to create more pathways for Black students in research and STEM. Newell’s story, as reported by ABC7 Eyewitness News, is the kind that cuts through the noise.

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Newell is the valedictorian at Verbum Dei Jesuit High School and plans to use his eventual Columbia degree as a launching pad for something bigger. “One of my goals is actually to create an institution where I teach Black kids how to work in STEM,” he said. He learned to code as a child at South Park recreation center in South LA, a place he brought cameras back to when sharing his story, and a place that holds more weight than most people would know.

His family experienced homelessness during his childhood. “There were times where we didn’t have like a roof over our head, but we had a car. We didn’t have a place to stay, so we would come and sleep in this parking lot,” he said, standing in the same parking lot where his family once sought refuge.

His mother raised him as a single parent, having him at 21, and refused to let circumstances define his ceiling. “As a parent, it is your duty to find out what your kids are good at,” she said. “I probably couldn’t have done it myself, but it was my job to figure out who could help and where I can get those resources from.” She watched him become the first male in their family to graduate high school, with the family also having been touched by gang violence and incarceration.

Newell said his younger brother was part of his motivation, too. “I realized if I didn’t try hard enough, who would for him?” The achievement is already changing the frame for what those coming after him believe is possible.

His mother put it plainly: “This not only means something great to me, but it’s very influential to my family as a whole because now the youth that comes after him are going to see that there’s another way out.”