CLEVELAND — Wonuola Obasa had tough choices to make after every college he applied to accepted him.
“Brown University, Stanford University, Ohio State, Yale University and Harvard,” he said.
Case too.
This fall, he will be headed to Harvard on a pre-med track. His goal is to one day come back to serve the underserved.
“I eventually want to go to medical school and become an OB/GYN,” Obasa said. “I want to enter public policy to help advocate for universal healthcare and to try to fix our healthcare system.”
It is something he knows about, noticing a disparity between white and African-American mothers after his brother spent time in a NICU.
But there is more.
“The end goal would definitely be to be in politics and help change society for the better,” Obasa said.
The son of Nigerian immigrants, the 17-year-old said his mother inspired him.
It is a breath of fresh of fresh air at a time of national outrage over parents' buying their kids’ spots in elite schools.
Yet there is still pressure on Obasa.
“It’s not just me going to Harvard,” he said. “There’s also a community behind me who will have expectations for me.”
Obasa will graduate from the Cleveland School of Science and Medicine, which is on the campus of John Hay.
He will be the first in his family to attend college in the United States.