Ramsay High School senior Jillian Jolly has dreamed of attending Yale University since she was in kindergarten, and now this 18-year-old Alabama student’s hard work has paid off beyond her wildest imagination.
“I always heard that Yale was the school where smart people went. It was the top school, and I wanted to be there,” she explained in a post on the City of Birmingham’s website.
Fast forward to today, and Jolly has accepted a full-ride, four-year scholarship worth nearly $300,000 from one of the world’s elite academic institutions. The student emphasized that this accomplishment is bigger than her.
“It’s not just a big accomplishment for me, it’s a win for the whole community,” Jolly, who’s ranked No. 4 at Ramsay High School with a 4.4 GPA, said. “I don’t look at it as, ‘Jillian got into Yale.’ I look at it as everyone benefits from it.”
Not only did Yale accept her and offer her a full scholarship, but so did most of her 11 other colleges she applied to. Collectively, she has amassed more than $2.3 million in scholarship offers from a dozen schools: Yale, Wake Forest University, Howard University, the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), Boston College, Tuskegee University, Boston University, Emory University, Washington University in St. Louis, Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, Berea College and George Washington University.
Jolly was also recently one of six students recognized during the Kiwanis Club of Birmingham’s Youth of the Year Scholarship Program presentation.
Sitting in the audience was Mayor Randall Woodfin, who said Jolly’s video impressed him.
“I’m proud of her. Any time you have a Birmingham graduate who is a hard worker and is motivated and supported by family, community and her school, the Mayor’s Office and the City of Birmingham are happy to support her, too,” Woodfin remarked. “She already has a local network of Yale graduates cheering for her, and she hasn’t even walked across the graduation stage yet. What she is doing has inspired me, and I hope she will inspire others.”
Jolly is a picture of resilience, and her journey has been a made-for-Hollywood story.
“I kind of made a way out of no way,” she said. “I’m from a single-parent home, where others have had to serve as a father figure for me. I have two younger sisters, and I’m a parent figure to them. I’ve given up summers to watch them because my mother didn’t have the money to send them to summer camps. I helped my mother take care of my grandmother before she died.”
“My mother, a college graduate, has a chronic illness. But every day, she goes to work to provide for us,” Jolly explained. “Like my mother, I’ve never backed down. I’m very determined.”
Not only has she worked diligently to better herself and her future, but she has given of herself to benefit others in the community, volunteering to help address youth crime in Birmingham, tutoring students, serving as a youth leader at church and collecting canned goods for the needy.
“I guess I’m a voice for the voiceless,” Jolly said.
Jacqueline Harrell, the student’s mother, emphasized that her daughter has always put school and her faith first.
“I’m so proud of her. She never gave up,” Harrell said. “She remained strong and persevered and made it to where she is today.’’
“We have had a lot of stumbling blocks along the way. She would get down, but she didn’t stay down,” she continued. “You have to thank God that she was able to see another day. With a new day comes new opportunities and another chance to follow your dreams.”
Read more about Jolly’s inspirational journey here.
Sean Ross is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
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