“I got all these letters — free ride here, full ride here, full ride here and all that type of stuff,” he told ABC. “I got accepted into my childhood dream school, USC. I didn’t go, it’s too close to home, but I still got accepted there. I accomplished that.”

Graduating top of his class from Crenshaw Arts Tech Charter High with a 4.7 grade-point average, Hunter is also one of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s scholarship recipients.

Hunter said receiving these offers made him feel good that all his discipline paid off.

“I felt good because my hard work paid off. All the long sleepless nights I took in, stuff like that, it finally paid off,” Hunter said.

Hunter decided on his school of choice and is set to start college this week at Berkeley.

“Math has been my favorite subject my entire education career. So that’s why I’ll be studying mechanical engineering at Berkeley,” he said.

His mother, Rodkeisha Polian, said she kept her son’s schedule full to keep him off the streets.

“I kept him in sports, I kept him in church, I kept him in community events,” Polian said. “I always kept him busy, so he didn’t have time to wander out in the streets and get into any trouble.”

Hunter also launched his clothing brand, The Legit Way, in honor of his life motto to display to community youth that street life is not the only alternative to help support your family.

“My whole motto is to show the youth that it’s OK to do stuff good, the correct way, the legit way,” he said. “You don’t have to be in the streets to help your family out. Look at me. I’m going to college, and I’m going to help my family out.”

Hunter has plans and ideas to give back to the younger generation of his community and help elevate them through various building methods.

“In my community, just all low-income communities, we don’t know what it is to build credit, how to buy a home, how to obtain a loan from the bank, anything in that sort,” Hunter said. “So I just want to teach the community that and empower my community, elevate them, help us get further than where we were.”

Hunter wants to pursue a career with NASA or SpaceX after graduating college.