Alena Wicker typifies the popular saying: where there’s a will, there’s a way. A potpourri of sheer hard work, resilience, and determination to defy the status quo; the precocious kid already has the world at her feet — at 13.
On June 30, Wicker announced her admission into the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Heersink School of Medicine.
The feat, it is understood, makes her the youngest black person in the country to be accepted into medical school.
Wicker’s admission into medical school comes just a year after she graduated from high school at the age of 12.
“Today I’m just grateful. I graduated High school last year at 12 years old and here I am one year later I’ve been accepted into med school at 13,” she wrote via her Instagram page.
In the touching post, the teenager appreciated her mother for her support, describing her as the major pillar behind her success story.
“I’m a junior in college. I’ve worked so hard to reach my goals and live my dreams. Mama I made it. I couldn’t have done it without you. You gave me every opportunity possible to be successful,” she wrote.
“You cheered me on, wiped my tears, gave me oreos when I needed comfort, you never allowed me to settle, disciplined me when I needed. You are the best mother a kid could ever ask for. Mama I made it!
“You always believed in me. You allowed me space to grow and become, make mistakes without making me feel bad. You allowed me the opportunity to experience the world.
“I pray God blesses me so big you never ever have to want for anything in this earthly life. You sacrificed so much for me (people have no idea what we have been through) and here I am while it seems so far away the end of this college chapter is going by so fast. Mommy I made it!!!”
The prodigy was accepted as part of the school’s Early Assurance Program, which partners with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) schools in Alabama to offer students early acceptance as they plan to enter medical school.
Speaking with the Washington Post, Daphne McQuarter, Wicker’s mother, said she noticed her daughter’s brilliance at an early stage.
“Alena was gifted. It was just how she did things and how advanced she was. She was reading chapter books,” she said.
Also speaking with the media outlet, Wicker recounted her experience with bullying in school and how it made her stay away temporarily before returning in the fifth grade.
“There was a little boy that bullied me, and he would tease me and call me ‘smarty pants,” she recalled.
The teenager said she was home-schooled by her mother and took advanced high school classes during the period to improve herself.
This, according to her, made it easier when she returned to school.
“I was bored. The high school work was so easy for me that I ended up graduating from high school at 12 years old,” she said.
The development further stretches the heroics of the teenager, who is currently studying at two different universities — Arizona State University and Oakwood University in Huntsville, Alabama.
Wicker had earlier created Brown STEM Girl to encourage more black girls to pursue a career in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
“We’re showing the world that there’s other girls out there that are just like me, and they deserve an opportunity and a chance,” she said.
“On conversations around her young age, Wicker said: “What is age? You’re not too young to do anything. I feel like I have proven to myself that I can do anything that I put my heart and mind to,” she added.
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