
The first African-American male valedictorian at his high school in Georgia is coming to North Carolina for college.
And a video of him rapping to celebrate his achievements has amassed nearly half a million views.
Rawlin Tate Jr. took 21 AP classes, has a 4.7 GPA, “received over $1 million in scholarship offers” and is the first black male to be valedictorian in Woodland High School’s history, according to the school. Now he’s going to North Carolina A&T State University on a full academic scholarship, the high school said.
“You are an inspiration to many and we are so proud of all of your accomplishments,” the school said in a Facebook post.
“Congratulations!! Welcome to #Aggieland,” North Carolina A&T State University wrote.
Tate tweeted that he was also ranked number one in his class for seven years in a row, was accepted to 14 collegesand was a member of seven national honors societies.
He’s also a recording artist, an oboist, a concert pianist and an athlete on two varsity sports teams, according to his Twitter.
He showed off his musical chops in a video posted to Twitter.
#ncat #NCAT23 #valedictorian #BlackExcellence
— Rawlin (@_rawology) May 20, 2019
1. First African American male Valedictorian in Woodland History
2. “4.7 GPA I just secured the bag”🤪
3. #1 of my class for 7 years STRAIGHT
4. A Georgia Scholar
5. Over 1.2 million dollars in scholarships pic.twitter.com/lklhMVZjgp
The high school senior’s lowest grade on his transcript was a 98, and he never made below an A in his academic career, according to 11Alive.
“I’ve always been high achieving but to this degree — I’ve never really experienced this,” Tate told 11Alive. “I didn’t even know what a valedictorian was going into high school. I’ve just kept doing what I was doing, and now I’m here.”