First the Sister Graduated as Valedictorian, Then Two Years Later, Her Brother Did the Same!

Two siblings in Georgia have once again proven Black excellence. Anthony Mays II just recently graduated as the valedictorian with a 4.93 GPA at Rockdale Magnet School for Science and Technology. His sister, Chyna Mays, also graduated as the valedictorian with a 4.91 GPA two years ago!

Their mother, Demeka Breedlove-Mays, said they credit their daughter and son’s achievements to hard work, focus, and planning about their future from the very beginning. Both Anthony and Chyna maintained all A’s from Kindergarten up to 12th grade.

“Our secret is that we had a plan for them since birth and followed it,” Breedlove-Mays told Because of Them We Can.

She added that her children initially aspired to only attend great schools, not necessarily the Ivy league or top 5 schools, on full rides. They took college tours as early as 8th grade and participated in different programs even on summer breaks. And it definitely worked because now, they are actually attending their dream college without the burden of tuition.

Anthony has been accepted into prestigious schools such as MIT, Harvard, Brown, Stanford, Rice, Cornell, and the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia, and Dartmouth among others. He was also the only male and only Black valedictorian for the Class of 2019 in the whole Rockdale County Public School District.

Anthony plans to enter Stanford where he will major in Management Science-Engineering (economics-finance track) and Mathematics with Mandarin as his language of study. He will be joining his sister who is a junior student of Bioengineering at Stanford and just received her 2nd academic excellence award for maintaining a 3.5 GPA or above all year.