Florida student accepted into 27 colleges, receives $4 million in scholarships
News Channel3 | By Thomas Shults | April 14, 2022
PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WMBB) — A Rutherford High School senior has some big decisions ahead.
Jonathan Walker has been accepted into almost 30 of the most prestigious colleges in the country and has more than $4 million in scholarships offers.
Walker has applied to 27 colleges, and all 27 have accepted him.
“It’s so crazy to think about, that I applied to all these colleges and I got in because that’s such a rare thing to occur. But the fact that it did happen, I’m so excited about it,” Walker said.
Stanford, Harvard, Yale, and Duke were among the 27 schools he was admitted into.
Walker is still trying to whittle down the choices and take a few more college visits, with under a month to make a decision.
“The whirlwind of like decisions coming back, that’s over now. So I’ve just really been trying to soak it in just how much of a blessing that this is that I got into these colleges. So just like sitting back, smelling the roses,” Walker said.
Walker hopes to pursue a career creating medical devices to serve underprivileged communities and he’s already working on multiple patents.
Walker invented a braille system, created an air filter to turn gas emissions into oxygen and created a pill dispenser to keep track of drugs— on a TI-84 calculator.
“Right now, I’m very interested in engineering and entrepreneurship. I’ve always loved creating devices to help people so I definitely want to further that,” Walker said. “I’m looking at majoring in electrical engineering and possibly biomedical engineering to hopefully develop medical technology in order to help disadvantaged communities that have health problems.”
He said he’s working with colleges to create his own major.
Walker plans to study engineering, computer science, business and psychology, in hopes of one day creating his own company.
“Jonathan has not been a typical student. He has continued to persevere despite all the challenges that we faced you know with the hurricane,” Rutherford High School IB and AP Coordinator Cathy Rutland said.
Walker has also played on the Rams football team for the past four years while maintaining a 4.85 GPA.
