Columbia, UCLA, Georgetown — these are just some of the universities that have accepted members of the Verbum Dei School's Class of 2015.
For the seventh year in a row, every single graduating student at the all-boys high school in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles has been accepted to a four-year college. They are already planning big things for their futures — salutatorian Zachary Byrge told ABC7 he wants to become an orthopedic or oral surgeon, while valedictorian Nicholas Spates wants to go to Georgetown or Columbia to study engineering.
Each of the students has defied the odds: Administrators say they are low income and when they enroll in the school, they are behind one to two years academically. The school's dean of counseling, Martinique Starnes, believes that they come to Verbum Dei with their eyes on the prize, saying, "The key to success for these students is the desire for more."
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