Once referring to himself as “an ordinary street dude,” Oakland teen Akintunde Ahmad is definitely not the ordinary student.
The Oakland Technical High School student has a 5.0 GPA and received a perfect 2100 score on the SATs. Affectionately called ‘Tunde by friends and family, Ahmad has also been accepted to Yale, Brown, Columbia, and UCLA, along with other esteemed universities.
But Ahmad hasn’t only focused on book smarts. He also plays three instruments and baseball. He may even attend college on a baseball scholarship.
According to SFGATE, Ahmad has faced private-school students who attempted to belittle his accomplishments, telling him that his success is due to easy classes and the low academic standards of public schools. Instead of defending his GPA, he shuts them up with his SAT and AP scores. Ahmad says:
“People looking at me funny is so common that it doesn’t stick out for me anymore. It’s something I’ve gotten used to … I’ll leave this school and there will be teachers who never knew I was one of the people on the honor roll.”
Ahmad and his family are practicing Rastafarians. Because of his faith, the teen has never had a haircut and wears dreadlocks. His parents, Zarina (an elementary school principal) and Mubarak Ahmad (a mechanic for AC Transit), raised all six of their children with good values.