Last week Ms. Rutledge-Brown’s son, Micheal Brown, opened the last of his big envelopes, and put an exclamation point at the end of an impressive streak: Mr. Brown, 17, got into all 20 highly selective colleges he applied to, all of which offered him a full ride through a combination of merit- and financial-based scholarships and grants. Currently a senior at Mirabeau B. Lamar High School, Micheal has been heavily involved in his school's debate team, mock trial and student government for years. Micheal Brown, right, has been involved in several programs to help him prep for college - including the Subiendo summer leadership program at the University of Texas at Austin. Photo: Courtesy Micheal Brown / Courtesy Micheal Brown 
 
 Micheal Brown has been accepted by all 20 of the colleges and universities he applied to. Now, the Lamar High School senior is ready for college himself — and thanks to her example and a 4.68 GPA, he has more options than he ever imagined. Brown, a 17-year-old from Houston’s Third Ward, applied to 20 colleges and universities, including four Ivy League schools. He was admitted to every single one with a full ride and $260,000 in additional scholarship offers. Of those 20, he listed his top eight choices as: Harvard, Princeton, Northwestern, Yale, University of Pennsylvania, Stanford, Georgetown and Vanderbilt. Every time a message from a college popped up, Brown said, “I got nervous, because I don’t think anyone ever wants to be rejected.” 
 
 READ ALSO: 25 well-paying jobs that don't require a degree 
 
 But every time, the schools said yes — from Stanford to Princeton, Amherst to Vanderbilt, Johns Hopkins to the University of Texas at Austin. From the beginning, he saw a focused, smart student with a strong sense of who he was and where he wanted to go. "For me, it's important to highlight that I'm not the only student of color who is achieving," the teenager noted. I don’t even think she really knew that I saw, that it had an impact on me — but it did.” 
 
 She’s still showing him how to strive, Brown said; she now works two jobs as a chemical dependency counselor. “I cried because I realized that there was a chance that my child would get the education he deserves — the one I could not afford to pay for,” she said. "I want people to be informed and get access to these same programs," he said.
– Micheal Brown heard back from the first college in December. The Houston 12th-grader was accepted to Stanford, a school he'd imagined attending for years; his mom filmed his joyful reaction. Since then, he's been accepted to every single one of the 20 universities to which he applied—some of the country's best, from four Ivy League schools to small and "highly selective" schools, per the New York Times. And not only that: The 17-year-old, who plans on majoring in political science, has been offered a full scholarship at each and every one, CNN reports. He's narrowed it down to his top seven (Harvard, Princeton, Northwestern, Yale, Penn, Stanford, Georgetown) and will spend the next month touring schools before making a decision on May 1. "It's something I'm proud of because I see my hard work paying off, determination paying off, sacrifices paying off," he says. Brown credits his mom, Berthinia Rutledge-Brown. "After she got divorced, she decided she needed to get a better job," he tells the Houston Chronicle, so she got a college degree and now works two jobs as a licensed chemical dependency counselor. "The best lesson she taught me was through her actions and her working hard and dedicating herself." Brown has a 4.68 GPA; is active with Mirabeau B. Lamar High School's debate team and student government; has worked with political campaigns; and has been involved with initiatives that match kids from low-income communities with higher-ed opportunities. In addition to the full rides he's been offered, he's secured $260,000 in additional scholarship money.