Photo Courtesy Of Montgomery Advisor
Black Alabama teen, Omarion Ikaika Calloway, has been accepted to over 20 colleges, including his dream university, and received over $1.3M in scholarships.
Omarion, a Park Crossing High School senior, was accepted to Fordham University, Howard University, Hampton University, and Emerson College, among the other institutions. However, he aimed to get into New York University, and he achieved exactly that when he received an acceptance letter from their staff in December 2021.
The soon-to-be first-generation college student credited his late grandmother for encouraging him to apply to the famed NYC-based school. She recently passed away from colon cancer–seven years after he became her and his disabled uncle’s caretaker at the tender age of ten.
“My grandmother … inspired me to apply to NYU, so when she died…I just feel a certain pain in my home,” he told the Montgomery Advisor.
His mother, Tiffany Calloway, taught him how to fulfill important medical tasks for his sick relatives while she worked two jobs, including administering medication and ensuring his uncle received his daily insulin injections for his diabetes. Omarion also tucked his grandmother into bed each night and read her original stories that he wrote.
Sadly, his uncle passed away as his senior year at Park Crossing began. However, despite the challenging experience, Omarion made it his duty to excel in school, where he earned and maintained a 3.9 GPA. He advanced to a higher grade level math program and has done so partially virtually.
“I have about 50 students in the program. [If] I could have 25 of [Omarion], I think it would make my job a lot easier,” said J.Kelley Ross, a virtual learning facilitator at the teen’s high school.
The 17-year-old even found time to give back to his community, as he was enrolled in a summer internship with the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office in 2021. Now, he is set to begin his college career and chase his dream of attending NYU and becoming a filmmaker. Since he was ten, he reportedly wanted to be a filmmaker and used a camera he received for Christmas to film his brother and show his family the movie he made.
“I would just write down my thoughts and project them onto like, characters I made up in my head and just went from there. I just fell in love with storytelling ever since,” Omarion said.
He added that like-minded individuals would surround him at his dream college.
“I know [that] at NYU, I’ll be trained in a media-based environment surrounded by artists like me,” Omarion said. He would like to become a part of “the next generation of storytellers and community builders” and be a “voice for the voiceless.”
His mom expressed how happy she was for him and his recent accomplishment.
“As his mother, I remain so proud of him that tears well up in my eyes just thinking about him being accepted into his dream school. All a mother wants is for her child to have the best life possible,” she said.
Omarion has also planned to start an organization for “young caregivers” at NYU, where they can meet and raise money for their cause.