{"id":21061,"date":"2025-04-22T12:33:09","date_gmt":"2025-04-22T16:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/?p=21061"},"modified":"2025-04-22T12:33:09","modified_gmt":"2025-04-22T16:33:09","slug":"son-of-immigrants-celebrates-being-accepted-in-7-ivy-league-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2025\/04\/son-of-immigrants-celebrates-being-accepted-in-7-ivy-league-schools.html","title":{"rendered":"\u201cSon of immigrants\u201d Celebrates Being Accepted in 7 Ivy League Schools"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_21064\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-21064\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2025\/04\/Angel-Ortiz_credit-New-York-Post-YouTube.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-21064\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2025\/04\/Angel-Ortiz_credit-New-York-Post-YouTube.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-21064\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">New York Post \/ YouTube<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A New Jersey student has a tough decision to make by April 30 as he weighs which of the 7 Ivy League schools he will attend this coming fall. 17-year-old Angel Ortiz, a student at Arts High School in Newark received an early acceptance letter to Princeton in December and then received acceptances from Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, Brown, the University of Pennsylvania, and Dartmouth College. The only Ivy League school Ortiz was not accepted into is Cornell, simply because Ortiz did not apply there. Despite his impressive 34 on the ACT, 1480 on the SAT, and 4.3 GPA, being accepted to all the schools he applied to was a shock for Ortiz. \u201cI never expected something like that to happen. It was always in my mind that I could have gotten into one Ivy League, but multiple? I knew it was a small chance of happening but I decided to apply anyway \u2019cause why not?\u201d he told <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/04\/15\/us-news\/nj-high-school-senior-accepted-to-7-ivy-league-colleges-im-still-processing-it\/\"><em>The New York Post<\/em><\/a><em>. <\/em>\u201cAnd so, opening up those applications and seeing that my work was worth it and was good enough to be considered by these elite institutions was just incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ortiz, who was also named valedictorian at his school, credited his parents, who immigrated from Oaxaca, Mexico to the US, for inspiring his hard work. They now own two pizzerias. \u201cI always tell them, the way I work hard for you guys, that&#8217;s the way you guys got to work, this is for your future, this is for you,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/abc7ny.com\/post\/newark-arts-high-school-student-angel-ortiz-accepted-7-ivy-league-schools\/16178477\/\">said<\/a> his father, Mariano Ortiz. Ortiz would be a first-generation college student in his family. \u201cAs a first-generation Latino son of immigrants, I know that avenues like college are much harder to access for people like us. I hope that now, during my college life, and in my future career, I can be the best representation of my community and loved ones,\u201d said Ortiz.<\/p>\n<p>Ortiz intends to study political science, with the hopes of pursuing law or politics. \u201cI\u2019ve recently felt more determined to get myself into that circle and project my voice on a grander scale,\u201d he said. Arts High School also celebrated Ortiz\u2019s achievement in a statement. \u201cAngel\u2019s acceptance to seven Ivy League institutions is a personal triumph and a powerful symbol of what is possible for young people in Newark. His story inspires us all,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nps.k12.nj.us\/press-releases\/arts-high-school-senior-accepted-to-seven-of-the-nations-ivy-league-universities\/\">stated Roger\u00a0Le\u00f3n,<\/a> superintendent of Newark schools. \u201cWe are incredibly proud of Angel, whose remarkable academic journey is a testament to our schools\u2019 strength, our educators\u2019 dedication, our supportive parents, and our students\u2019 resilience.\u201d Ortiz\u2019s final decision must be made by April 30, coincidentally his 18<sup>th<\/sup> birthday. He shared that he hopes to inspire other students. \u201cDon&#8217;t feel pressure to do things simply to impress other people or other institutions,\u201d he said. \u201cIf any high school student can take something from me, it&#8217;s to basically just be yourself. Don&#8217;t be like me. I&#8217;m a different person. Just be you and things will come eventually.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A New Jersey student has a tough decision to make by April 30 as he weighs which of the 7 Ivy League schools he will attend this coming fall. 17-year-old Angel Ortiz, a student at Arts High School in Newark received an early acceptance letter to Princeton in December and then received acceptances from Yale,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":21064,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiring-messages"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>\u201cSon of immigrants\u201d Celebrates Being Accepted in 7 Ivy League 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