A 16-year-old Washington, D.C. high school student, who received $1.6 million in scholarships, has chosen to attend Florida A&M University (FAMU) in the fall.   

Curtis Lawrence III will graduate with his high school diploma and receive an associate degree and enter FAMU as a junior, according to a FAMU press release.   

“I started off thinking about what schools had good biology programs. I started off looking at HBCUs because I wanted to have the HBCU experience to be surrounded by the people, who are just like me, not only Black but academically talented,” Lawrence said.   

Lawrence began taking college classes at George Washington University when he was 14. He also got accepted into Harvard University, Howard University, Hampton University, Morehouse College, Morgan State University, North Carolina A&T State University, University of California-Berkeley, the University of Chicago and Yale University.  

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Lawrence leaned on his family to research the best schools in paleontology with a doctoral program. “This has been a really long process that started in the seventh grade thinking about college prep,” his mom, Malene Lawrence, said. “His goal is to earn a Ph.D., so we helped him plan backward.”  

FAMU’s vice president for student affairs, William E. Hudson Jr., Ph. D, helped recruit Lawrence III to FAMU, saying that the school is “very fortunate to have students” of Lawrence III’s caliber.   

“We pride ourselves in producing successful students who meet the global workforce needs, Hudson said.