A Muslim teen who was excitedly accepted by prestigious Stanford University offered one hell of a personal statement as part of his application, simply writing #BlackLivesMatter 100 times.
Stanford replied to the application of Ziad Ahmed, a high school student in New Jersey, by stating:
Congratulations! You have been admitted to Stanford’s class of 2021!
Everyone who reviewed your application was inspired by your passion, determination, accomplishments and heart. We acknowledge and celebrate all you have worked for with the good news this letter brings.
You are, quire simply, a fantastic match for Stanford. You will bring something original and extraordinary to our campus–a place where you can learn, grow and thrive.
At Stanford, you will join a diverse, joyful and welcoming campus community with a shared determination to make our world better. Indeed, Leland and Jane Stanford founded the university “to promote the public welfare by exercising influence on behalf of humanity and civilization.” That influence begins with an academic community committed to mastering the known and developing an intuitive capacity to imagining eh unknown.
Ahmed, whose Twitter picture shows him standing with Hillary Clinton, tweeted his personal statement and Stanford’s response, chortling, “I submitted this answer in my @Stanford application, & yesterday, I was admitted…”
As Mic.com reports:
Ahmed has already been invited to the White House Iftar dinner and recognized as an Muslim-American change-maker under the Obama administration. In 2016, he interned and worked for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton‘s presidential campaign after leading Martin O’Malley’s youth presidential campaign. In November 2015, Ahmed gave a TedxTalk in Panama City, Panama, discussing the perils and impact of stereotypes as a young Muslim teen.
Ahmed stated, “I was actually stunned when I opened the update and saw that I was admitted. I didn’t think I would get admitted to Stanford at all, but it’s quite refreshing to see that they view my unapologetic activism as an asset rather than a liability.” He added:
To me, to be Muslim is to be a BLM ally, and I honestly can’t imagine it being any other way for me. Furthermore, it’s critical to realize that one-fourth to one-third of the Muslim community in America are black … and to separate justice for Muslims from justices for the black community is to erase the realities of the plurality of our community. As an ally of the black community though, it is my duty to speak up in regards to the injustice, and while this was not a form of activism as it was simply an answer in a college application, I wanted to make a statement.
Ahmed has also been accepted by Yale and Princeton universities.