18-year-old girl wins best graduating student award in high school, bags $4.5m scholarship to study in 113 US universities

An exceptional 18-year-old girl from the Georgia United States, Aylah Birks has outshined her colleagues to emerge as the best graduating student and valedictorian at the Twiggs County High School in Georgia.

Aylah Bricks who is a native of Twiggs also won an outstanding $4.5million scholarship award cumulatively from 113 universities across the United States.

The young scholar who graduated in 2021 also set a record for her high school after emerging the first-ever female student and third student to win a Gates Scholarship. The Gates Scholarship is a highly competitive award granted to exceptional students across the United States.

The Scholarship which covers a student’s full cost of attending school including tuition, fees, room, board, books, transportation, and other personal expenses, requires the student to be among the top 10 per cent of their graduating class, and participate in extracurricular and community service activities, among other factors.

Aylah Bricks competed with 34,000 students for the award and emerged as one of the 300 winners in the United States.

Aylah’s exceptional academic performance started from a young age as she clinched several valedictorian awards right from her 1st grade and down to her 12th grade. Celebrating her landmark achievement on LinkedIn, she explained that she received awards in her 1st, 8th and 12th grade.

“A 3 TIME VALEDICTORIAN (1st Grade; 8th Grade; 12th Grade) AT TWIGGS COUNTY HIGH SCHOOL,” she said.