Jaden Hunter, an 18-year-old entrepreneur from South Los Angeles, is walking in his purpose while empowering the youth to stay out of the streets.
With excellence, Hunter blazed through high school, earning a 4.7-grade point average, and was crowned with the co-valedictorian title at Crenshaw Arts Tech Charter High.
The new grad and incoming freshman is proud to see the fruits of all his labor blossom.
“I felt good because my hard work paid off. All the long sleepless nights I took in, stuff like that, it finally paid off,” Hunter said, according to ABC7 News
.Now, Hunter will be taking his passions and work ethic to Berkeley University of California. But his final decision meant turning down acceptances from a whopping 38 other schools. He was even offered a total of $3.5 million in scholarships.
“I got all these letters. Free ride here, full ride here, full ride here and all that type of stuff. I got accepted into my childhood dream school, USC. I didn’t go, it’s too close to home, but I still got accepted there. I accomplished that,” Hunter said, per the news outlet.
The stunning choice in the institution became apparent when the Gates Scholars recipient aligned his interests in mathematics with the Berkeley Mechanical Engineering program. Once he collects his degree, Hunter is setting his sights on working for NASA or SpaceX.
“Math has been my favorite subject my entire education career basically. So that’s why I’ll be studying mechanical engineering at Berkeley,” Hunter explained.
While Hunter gears up for his first semester, he stays focused on elevating his community. From financial wealth to entrepreneurship, the budding engineer just wants to see his community reach higher heights.
“In my community, just all low-income communities, we don’t know what it is to build credit, how to buy a home, how to obtain a loan from the bank, anything in that sort. So I just want to teach the community that and empower my community, elevate them, help us get further than where we were,” Hunter said, per ABC7.
Hunter’s clothing brand, The Legit Way, is just one of his efforts to show others that if he could do it, so can anyone else who wants to help support their families.