ATLANTA — After making history over the summer with his team at a Harvard debate competition, one teen will be heading back to the prestigious campus next year - this time as a student of the Ivy League school.
Osazi Al Khaliq tweeted that he would be joining the Class of 2023 at Harvard, becoming one of the 935 students accepted the the university early, among what the university said is likely the most competitive early admissions cycle in Harvard history.
Atlanta Public Schools' Superintendent Meria Carstarphen even tweeted congrats to the Maynard Holbrook Jackson High School senior.
Khaliq was part of the debate team that returned home as champions after participating in the Harvard Debate Council's annual residency.
Of over 150 applicants, Khaliq was one of 25 students from Atlanta who were selected as the Harvard Debate Council Diversity Project (HDCDP) class. Most of them were inexperienced debaters from 16 different metro-Atlanta schools.
Khaliq said he was at a loss for words being accepted into the incoming class.
“It is because of the sense of purpose and validation that the HDCDP has instilled within me that positioned me to be admitted into the Harvard College Class of 2023," he said. "Being accepted into Harvard is a testament to how much the Diversity Project has cultivated within me a sense of academic excellence, cultural pride and community leadership.”
The HDCDP was established in 2017 as an Atlanta-based pipeline program to recruit, train and feed students of color into a prestigious summer residency at Harvard College. The inaugural class of the HDCDP began in January 2018.