Decades After Struggle To Integrate, Girard College Produces 2nd Gates Millennium Scholar
By Cherri Gregg
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Fifty years ago, Philadelphia civil rights activists began marching to desegregate Girard College. That effort is bearing fruit once again as the school prepares to graduate its second Gates Millennium Scholar.
"I've definitely decided to go to Harvard," says Brandon Dixon, 17. The Girard College senior is class valedictorian, a second term student body president and a leader in his boy scout troop. So far, he's gotten accepted at five Ivy League schools and six other top schools as well.
"Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Dartmouth, University of Pennsylvania, Stanford," says Dixon, smiling.
But seven years ago, when he left his Northeast Philadelphia home to begin his journey at Girard, his future was unclear.
"I cried for three months straight," he says. "My mom wanted me to leave because she didn't like to see my crying."
But he soon adjusted, made friends, and excelled. Why and how? He says it's because his mother made him believe he was born to be something great:
"She calls me the miracle baby because she had me at 45 and most people don't have babies around that age. So she told me I was destined to be something."
And he believed it. Using his fellow classmates as fuel for competition, Dixon is a self-described loner with a "goofy" sense of humor. He loves to read and loves nature and tennis.
"I'm not good at it," he says, jokingly.
But thanks to his work ethic, he just found out he received a Gates Millennium Scholarship that'll pick up his portion of the tab on his education through a Ph.D. And he'll need it, because Dixon loves going to school, plus he's reaching for the stars.
"My ultimate goal is to president of the United States," he says. "I'm destined to do great, so I'm been trying to love up to that my entire life."
Despite so many successes, Dixon says he works to remain humble by remembering those who sacrified so he could be where he is today:
"When you look at the senior class -- which is all African American except for two students-- we are excelling here. Fifty years later there's so much progress and I'm grateful."
