Xavian Branch, a graduating senior at a high School in Jackson, Mississippi, earned a total of $1.5 million in scholarships from 20 different colleges across the country. The Jim Hill High School class valedictorian, who earned a 4.8 GPA in the International Baccalaureate Diploma program, said he accomplished everything that he wanted to accomplish in high school.

"When I look back at all the work that I did, I wouldn’t regret anything,” he told WLBT.

His proud mother, Zandra Branch, said she knows he'll go on to good things.

“I just can’t say enough about my baby,” Zandra said. “I want him to make all the contributions in the world. Keep God first in his life and foremost and whatever he decided to do will prevail for him.”

Branch received scholarship offers from schools such as Ole Miss, West Point, Vanderbilt and Carnegie Mellon University. In the end, the 18-year-old chose to attend Mississippi College.

This year's graduating class at Jim Hill received a total of $13 million dollars in scholarships. That's thanks in part to Academic Adviser Frank J. Branch, who has been leading the effort to bring more scholarships for the students.

“I saw that we were not getting any money for the colleges, and I knew that money was out there. I made it my goal to help them get into college,” said Frank, who has helped secure $70 million dollars in scholarships in the past five years.

Branch will deliver his valedictorian speech on June 1.

“Jim Hill prepared me not only for college, but for life,” he said.

Victory Yinka-Banjo, another stellar student, earned more than $5 million dollars in scholarships this year, as Blavity previously reported. The straight-A student from Nigeria received 19 offers from universities across the U.S. and Canada. Yale College, Princeton University, Harvard College and Brown University were among the schools who gave the offers.

"It still feels pretty unbelievable. I applied to so many schools because I didn't even think any school would accept me," the 17-year-old said.

Xavian Branch

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