"Very blessed": Norristown high school student accepted to 7 Ivy League schools
NORRISTOWN, Pa. (CBS) -- A Montgomery County teenager has just achieved an impressive feat of academic excellence. He's been accepted to seven Ivy League universities, plus six other colleges.
Seventeen-year-old Ikram Ibidakpo recalls the moment he opened his acceptance letter from Princeton.
"I got in and like me, my dad, my brother, we're all like jumping up and down," Ibidakpo said. "Like real screaming and everything."
That same day, the Norristown area high school student found out he also got into Yale, UPenn, Columbia, Cornell, Brown and Dartmouth. A total of seven Ivy League schools.
"I'm pretty excited and like, very blessed," Ibidakpo said.
Born in the West African country of Benin, he grew up speaking Yoruba and French.
His mother died from cancer when he was 7 years old. A year later, he immigrated to the United States.
"Coming from Africa to here was like, a big cultural difference," Ibidakpo said. "Like, getting adjusted to like, the school, the new language, the new culture, like, that was really hard to adjust to."
Ibidakpo says his inspiration is his father, a single dad who worked as an Uber driver while raising him and his two brothers. His dad says he couldn't be prouder of his son."
"I'm very grateful to God and the American dream," his father Karimou Ibidakpo said. "If you work hard, you're gonna have your bread."
He has a 4.8 GPA and has taken 12 AP classes but aside from being a stellar student, the principal says he's also a good person.
"As a young man, he's always respectful, kind, generous, and that just shows how he moves throughout the building," principal Detrick McGriff said.
After touring several campuses, Ibidakpo has his heart set on Yale.
While he's not sure what he's majoring in, he is sure of one thing.
"I just want to go back to Africa, like where I grew up, and like, help out a lot of people," Ibidakpo said. "As many people as I can."
He wants to fix poverty and homelessness but for now, he's enjoying these last few weeks of high school as he gets ready to his mark on the world.