“TJ Seniors Andrew Craig and Jordan Shelton were accepted into Yale and Stanford, respectively.”
Photo by Mia Nogueira
Two of Thomas Jefferson High School’s seniors, Andrew Craig and Jordan Shelton, have been accepted into the superb Ivy League schools Yale and Stanford, with their outstanding academic achievements.
Craig said he took a big risk when applying to college, as he only applied to one. “I was confident in what I had submitted, but Yale is a big school; 20,000 people apply to it every year. I hoped that I would be accepted but I knew what I was facing. It was all or nothing to me,” he said. It turned out that Andrew got it all when he received his acceptance letter. “My mother and grandmother were screaming, they were so proud,” he said. Andrew, with his impressive resume, being All School President, a member of the Peace Panel, Black Student Alliance and the Rent Project, and scoring a 28 on his ACT, is excited to go out-of-state. “I’m very excited to go to Yale, and the best part is it’s only an hour and fifteen minutes from New York City,” he said. Though he doesn’t know what he wants to do when he graduates, Craig knows he will be majoring in biology or theater. “At Yale I’m going to explore my opportunities, and I’ll increase my knowledge on these topics. I’ll decide what I want do to later.”
It wasn’t a surprise to many Spartans that senior and overachiever Jordan Shelton was accepted into the prestigious Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. “When I received my acceptance letter, both my parents were hysterical. They couldn’t believe it,” said Jordan. But he could believe it, since he was confident that he met the qualifications for Stanford. Jordan maintains his 4.3 GPA, and scored an impressive 30 on his ACT and 2000 on the SATs, while still having time to be a star runner for the TJ Cross Country team and the TJ Track team, and he hopes to run track for Stanford in the Spring of 2011. “I’m excited. I want something different. High school was fun but I’m ready to have my freedom, and even though I know Stanford will be tough I know I will have the best time of my life.” Look for more in-depth articles about each of these two incredible role models soon, on the TJ Journal.
