{"id":25106,"date":"2022-06-18T15:41:23","date_gmt":"2022-06-18T15:41:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/?p=25106"},"modified":"2022-06-18T15:41:23","modified_gmt":"2022-06-18T15:41:23","slug":"urban-prep-senior-amari-austin-73-acceptance-letters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/urban-prep-senior-amari-austin-73-acceptance-letters\/","title":{"rendered":"Urban Prep Senior Amari Austin “73 Acceptance Letters”"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Urban Prep Academies senior Amari Austin, who was accepted at 73 different schools, walks onstage as to the applause of the faculty during the school\u2019s Signing Day celebration at Daley Plaza on Thursday in the Loop, Thursday afternoon, May 19, 2022,<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Amari Austin\u2019s house brings to mind that Harry Potter scene in which a blizzard of letters arrives at the boy\u2019s home, each with an invitation to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.<\/p>\n

Envelopes keep coming for Austin \u2014 so many that his mother, Altrice Peterson, has had to buy a special file cabinet to hold them all.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was overwhelming,\u201d said Peterson Thursday. Neither Peterson nor her son is complaining. And on Thursday, Austin\u2019s classmates at Urban Prep Academy rose to their feet and offered him thunderous applause in Daley Plaza to celebrate his receiving acceptance letters to 73 four-year colleges across the United States.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere were some colleges I didn\u2019t get into, but that kept me motivated,\u201d said Austin, who plans to attend Southern Illinois University and major in computer science.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Austin received by far the most acceptance offers of any of his peers graduating from Urban Prep this year, but as usual, with a school system that has boasted a 100% acceptance of seniors to four-year colleges for each of the last 13 years, Thursday\u2019s event \u2014 \u201cUrban Prep 100% College Acceptance Celebration and Signing Day\u201d \u2014 was more about the whole than the individual.<\/p>\n

The vast majority of Urban Prep students are African-American and low income.<\/p>\n

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Urban Prep Academies senior Amari Austin, who was accepted at 73 different schools, celebrates with. a hug onstage during Urban Prep\u2019s Signing Day at Daley Plaza on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery day is a particularly difficult day for them in the city of Chicago. It is a tough environment for our students to grow up in. So it is a success for these guys to even show up to school. Add on to that a pandemic that we\u2019ve had to endure and deal with, and you realize that this type of achievement \u2014 100% college acceptance for the seniors \u2014 means even more,\u201d said Tim King, founder and CEO of Urban Prep Academies, which has campuses downtown, in Englewood and in Bronzeville.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Peterson attributed her son\u2019s success to perseverance \u2014 both his, and hers.<\/p>\n

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Altrice Peterson, mother of Urban Prep Academies senior Amari Austin, who was accepted at 73 different schools, records a video of her son during Urban Prep Academies\u2019 College Signing Day at Daley Plaza Thursday.\u00a0 \u201cI stayed on his neck about his studies. I told him he has to study,\u201d Peterson said. \u201cHe didn\u2019t like math when he first came to Urban Prep and then he started getting As.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

When her son\u2019s name was called Thursday, Peterson leaped to her feet, brandishing her cell phone camera.\u00a0 \u201cThat\u2019s my son!\u201d she yelled.<\/p>\n

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Urban Prep Academies graduating seniors wait on Daley Plaza for Thursday\u2019s Signing Day ceremony to start.<\/p>\n

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Dozens of other faces reflected Peterson\u2019s unrestrained joy, including those of Shalawn Jackson and Leroy Walker Jr., whose son Leroy Walker III is heading to Tennessee State University.\u00a0 \u201cI am so proud,\u201d said the young man\u2019s mother.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

She was also a little sad Thursday, as it began to sink in that she and her husband are about to become empty nesters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want him to get away, but I want him to understand that Chicago is always home, he can always come back here. It\u2019s a big world. Explore,\u201d Jackson said.<\/p>\n

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Urban Prep Academies graduating seniors and faculty pose for a video after the school\u2019s College Signing Day celebration at Daley Plaza on Thursday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Urban Prep Academies senior Amari Austin, who was accepted at 73 different schools, walks onstage as to the applause of the faculty during the school\u2019s Signing Day celebration at Daley Plaza on Thursday in the Loop, Thursday afternoon, May 19, 2022, Amari Austin\u2019s house brings to mind that Harry Potter scene in which a blizzard Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25125,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[56,133,1,182],"tags":[310],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25106"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25106"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25120,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25106\/revisions\/25120"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}