Ziad Ahmed, a high school senior from New Jersey, just took college applications to a whole new level. This weekend Ahmed was accepted into the prestigious Stanford University, but it’s how he did it that makes his acceptance even more extraordinary. On the school’s application prospective students were asked, “What matters to you and why?” and Ahmed, who attends Princeton Day School in Princeton, NJ, had only one response: Black Lives Matter.
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Instead of writing a long essay on the importance of the Black Lives Matter movement, Ahmed took a bit of creative liberty and simply wrote #BlackLivesMatter nearly a hundred times over.
“I was actually stunned when I opened the update and saw that I was admitted,” Ahmed said in an email to The Mic. “I didn’t think I would get admitted to Stanford at all, but it’s quite refreshing to see that they view my unapologetic activism as an asset rather than a liability.”
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After posting his essay response on Twitter, Ahmed’s story quickly went viral. Dedicated to his Islamic faith, Ahmed believes that to go against BLM would also mean he’d be going against his religion.
“To me, to be Muslim is to be a BLM ally, and I honestly can’t imagine it being any other way for me,” Ahmed said. “Furthermore, it’s critical to realize that one-fourth to one-third of the Muslim community in America are black … and to separate justice for Muslims from justices for the black community is to erase the realities of the plurality of our community.”
Congrats to Ziad for standing his ground and getting into one of the most prestigious universities in the country.