An orphaned Detroit high school senior earned more than $2.3 million in scholarships and was accepted by more than 40 colleges and universities.
Ridgeley Hudson Jr. lost both of his parents before he reached adulthood. His mother died when he was 11 months old, and when he was 14 his father followed. Despite these tragic setbacks, the Martin Luther King Jr. Senior High School student persevered.
Hudson secured about $2.3 million in scholarships and he was accepted to 46 schools including FAMU, Georgia State, Morehouse and Michigan State.
“I never thought that I’d be here at this moment with scholarships to the tune of $2.3 million,” Hudson told Local 4. “Normally you hear of student-athletes getting those scholarships.”
The 17-year-old decided to attend Michigan State University.
“With the things that are going on currently, I didn’t want to choose an HBCU because I wanted to be a change in a different community,” Hudson told Local 4.
The future educator also decided to “stay home” due to the pandemic and he was impressed with the school’s education program. Not to mention he won’t have to pay a dime.
“Michigan State had a real amazing education program, and so I decided to stay here and go to Michigan State,” he told Fox 2 Detroit. “Full ride, everything paid for.”
Hudson and four other young Black men at his school make up the school district’s top 5 scholarship earners. The group has earned more than $12 million combined. The enormity of this accomplishment is not lost on the teen.
“It’s very inspirational to me during this time of all the uncertainty and all the injustice that we see going on in the country that a young Black man is successful,” Hudson said. “Or four, five young Black men from Martin Luther King Jr. High School is successful.”
