18-Year-Old Virginia Senior Gets Accepted to 40 Colleges, Awarded $1.6 Million In Scholarships

This guy is going places!

Samuel Lyons is a senior at Franklin High School (FHS) in Virginia. In August 2020, he began completing college applications, balancing the rigor of applying with virtual school in the middle of the already hectic year. Now, the teen has been rolling in acceptance letters. He was admitted into 40 colleges and offered more than $1.6 million in scholarship money, 11 Alive reports.

“It was very time-consuming. I had to manage my time while applying to so many schools and doing virtual learning. I didn’t really know what to expect since it was my first time applying to colleges. I didn’t expect to get offered so much in scholarship money,” Lyons said. 

His guidance counselor, Ale Massenburg, who assisted him throughout the process, spoke about the remarkable achievement. 

“He is the first student since I have been at FHS to have been accepted into this many colleges and earned this huge amount of scholarship money by himself...I do not believe this is all of his scholarship money or acceptance letters. We have completed several other scholarships from different organizations that we are waiting on. I believe he will get those also,” Massenburg said. 

So far, Lyons has been accepted to the University of Richmond, George Mason University, Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), and Ferrum College. He wants to pursue a career in computer engineering and plans to attend VCU, where he was awarded a $30,000 VCU Engineering Progressive Award. 

Lyons says he wouldn’t have been able to do it without his guidance counselor and hopes to return to Franklin High and mentor other children one day. 

“I want to thank Ms. Massenburg and all of the teachers that taught me; each one contributed to my success,” Lyons said.

Congratulations, Samuel!

Photo Courtesy of Samuel Lyons/11 Alive