Local student gets full-ride scholarship to Harvard
COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – One local student is soaring in academics.
Columbus native Lani Carter got a full ride scholarship to an Ivy League school.
She opened the acceptance letter in her dorm room at Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science.
“I didn’t make a big fuss out of it. I didn’t record a video. I was just like ‘I’m just going to open it,’ and then I was like ‘Oh wait, I got into Harvard’ and my roommate was like ‘What?'”
No confetti. Just present in the moment.
That’s how 17-year-old Lani Carter discovered she got accepted into Harvard University, but with the humble senior’s history of success, Lani’s mother, Lou Williams, said this milestone doesn’t come as a surprise.
“She’s always been self-motivated. It didn’t take a lot from me. Honestly, by the time she got to 4th grade, she was pretty much doing everything on her own,” said Williams.
That grit and determination led Lani to getting a full-ride scholarship to the Ivy League school.
Currently, she’s a senior at MSMS and will be graduating soon.
Lani started applying her to Harvard in August.
“When I was doing college applications, I knew I wanted to apply to schools that I cared about. That way my essays could reflect that,” said Lani.
Before joining MSMS, she attended advanced online schools, including one ran by Stanford University.
And she spent her early years in the Columbus School District — with her teachers noticing her brilliance at a young age.
“She is a remarkable learner. She’s a very fast learner. I had to keep up with her, and I had to keep her busy,” said Vanessa Williams, Lani’s 2nd grade teacher from Fairview Elementary.
Lani plans to study electrical engineering at Harvard.
Her passion for math and science go back to childhood.
“So, from a young age, I used to want to be a doctor in that kind of overtime, (I) kind of transitioned out of me wanting to be exactly on the medical side, to wanting to deal more with medical technology. So that turned from doctor to biomedical engineering and gradually that turned into electrical engineering, because that’s a broader field. And I can do more with it,” said Lani.
During her hours of studying, Lani says hand-writing her notes is her best tool.
And for those future scholars, she recommends you to “take advantage of the opportunity you have, and you’ll be surprised where it takes you.”
Lani received 1.5 million dollars in scholarships combined from different schools.
Over $100,000 come from Harvard.
Lani graduates Saturday from MSMS and will start classes at Harvard this summer.
