Dana Bolden, a high school senior, has already received nearly $1.4 million in college scholarships after only two months of school. The 17-year-old Jim Hill High School student disclosed that she began thinking about which universities and scholarships to apply to throughout the summer and started the application process when the autumn semester started in early August.
“Once school started, I just decided to go ahead and knock it out and start applying to a bunch of schools,” Bolden told Good Morning America. I never imagined I’d reach to this stage of $1.4 million in scholarships, but I’m grateful that I have and that I have the opportunity to get this far.”
She was inspired to apply to various institutions and scholarships after witnessing a fellow student earn over $1 million in scholarships her sophomore year, according to her.
Frank Branch, an academic advisor at her school, described Bolden’s accomplishment as “outstanding.” “Normally, we’d have $1 million, $2 million, or $3 million babies every year.” But this is the first time somebody has earned more than a million dollars in September,” Branch added. “Normally, this will happen in January, so I’m very proud of Dana.”
The teen, who is active in speech and debate, the Jim Hill High School Marching Band, and student government, credited her mentors, particularly Jim Hill High School Principal Bobby Brown, for supporting her in reaching her lofty goals.
“I think the work that Dana has put into this process has been simply and truly amazing,” said Brown, the school’s principal. There are some fantastic academic things going on at Jim Hill High School, and Dana embodies what we believe to be a Jim Hill High School and Jackson Public Schools graduate.”
Bolden, who applied to over 60 universities and over 80 scholarships, has received approval from 34 of them. She also expects to hear from additional universities later in the year.
She stated that her favorite university is Duke University, where she plans to study biology and work toward becoming a trauma surgeon.
“A lot of my classmates put off applying to college because they think they’re not good enough to get in, or they don’t think they’ll meet the standards that they’ve set for themselves, but I feel like all you have to do is sit down, make this list, and apply to colleges,” the young achiever advised. “You never know where you’re going to end up.”