Georgia Excessive Faculty Senior Will get Accepted into 53 Faculties (Unique)

Some children get into only one faculty, and lots of might obtain a handful of acceptances. The bold ones usually strive for extra — however few go so far as Georgia teen Jada-Symone Batichon, who notched yeses from 53 out of 58 faculties this yr, with about $1.8 million in scholarships on high of that.

“All of it paid off,” the 18-year-old from Powder Springs tells PEOPLE.

“It’s all the pieces I’ve labored arduous for,” she provides. “My mother and pa at all times talked about how they had been the primary to go to school, in order that at all times motivated me.”

Dr. Claudia Batichon, Jada-Symone’s mother, was a giant a part of her success, she says: The 39-year-old profession, technical and agricultural schooling trainer at Wheeler Excessive — the place Jada-Symone simply graduated — additionally runs THINK Protégé, an impartial academic consulting initiative for faculty and profession readiness. 

“Regardless that I am a daughter, I am a shopper,” Jada-Symone says.

Since she began highschool, Jada-Symone maintained a 4.0 grade-point common and took part in quite a few extracurricular actions, together with pupil authorities, cheerleading and even being a lunchroom monitor at an elementary college. 

As a member of the Nationwide Honor Society, Jada-Symone created a membership at Wheeler referred to as EmpowHer. “We have had workshops the place we speak about friendships, faculty and recommendation actually for women who simply do not have that help,” she explains.

She additionally dual-enrolled at Kennesaw State College and not too long ago accomplished a college-level psychology course (with an A, in fact). 

Jada-Symone utilized to so many faculties in pursuit of scholarship provides, she says: “I didn’t need to go into debt. My mother advised me rates of interest are excessive. Lots of people are caught paying loans, and she or he remains to be paying hers. … I wished the higher hand in that — my selection.”

Claudia is part of the primary era of their Haitian household to graduate from highschool in America. Considered one of her roles at THINK is to assist discover scholarships for her college students. 

When it got here to her personal daughter, she tells PEOPLE: “I used to be like, ‘I’m going to deal with you similar to I do with all of my different children that I work with.’ I simply felt like we would have liked construction. This entire faculty course of is overwhelming. And if she had that construction, it might be simple for her to navigate the method.”

When she was in center college, Jada-Symone took six highschool programs, in line with her mother. 

“She was mainly performed with a semester-and-a-half of highschool whereas she was in center college,” Claudia says. “By the point she bought to junior yr [at Wheeler], her steering counselor was like, ‘There’s nothing else left right here for her to take.’ “

So Jada-Symone took programs at KSU and Chattahoochee Technical School the place she obtained her certification as a nursing assistant. She might have completed highschool earlier, however Claudia wished to ensure the teenager nonetheless had the expertise of a being regular excessive schooler.  

“I need her to go to promenade,” Claudia says. “I need her to nonetheless be a cheerleader. I need her to nonetheless play softball … By the point she turned a senior, she had a lot room [in her schedule]. I used to be like ‘You’ll be able to work and you are able to do work-based studying.’ “ That’s how Jada-Symone took on her position as a lunchroom monitor.

Together with her commencement date approaching in Could, Jada-Symone needed to decide which of her 53 choices for faculty was the most effective match. It was a easy reply to decide on the College of Alabama, one of many first faculties she visited again in ninth grade. “Roll tide,” she says. 

Her plan is to review enterprise administration with the aim of getting her undergraduate and grasp’s levels inside 4 years.

Her mother hopes her 4 brothers “comply with her footsteps as nicely. You understand how they at all times say, ‘You are supposed to go away it higher than you discovered it’? I felt like with me doing what I did, now she’s capable of do it. And my hope is her youngsters will be capable to do even higher.”

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Jada-Symone doesn’t plan to decelerate this summer season earlier than she strikes to Alabama and is seeking to land an internship or job. 

“I positively will miss my mother and father, particularly my mother,” she says forward of heading off to school. “I really feel prefer it’ll be so quiet. I am used to dwelling in a busy family, I in all probability will get homesick.”

However, she provides, “I understand how to handle my stuff … I feel it will not be that onerous.”