Carver Early College Class of 2026 Sets School Record, Earning $55 Million In Scholarships

The Carver Early College Class of 2026 shattered expectations and set a new school record, earning $55 million (and counting) in college scholarships before crossing the stage and receiving their diplomas at the Georgia Institute of Technology McCamish Pavilion on Tuesday, May 19, 2026.

At least 15 scholars in this year’s graduating class earned over $1 million in scholarships, and the Carver Early College salutatorian, Arianna Hollins, earned a whopping $8 million herself.

“For Carver Early College, it means promise, hope, and encouragement for our community,” Principal Dr. Christina Rogers said. “The $55 million superseded anything that we could ever have expected from our scholars.”

This year’s graduating class was motivated by the class of 2025, which earned $24 million in scholarships. Dr. Rogers and the school college counselors set the goal at $25 million for the class of 2026, however, the students set their own goal of doubling their predecessors.

“Everyone is really dedicated in this class,” said Hollins, who plans on majoring in Kinesiology at Louisiana State University.  “I have never been around a group of more ambitious students.”

Hollins, the $8 million scholar, is also continuing a family legacy of finishing high school at the top of her class. Her mother was the salutatorian of her high school, and her sister, Annie Ware, was the Carver Early College salutatorian in the class of 2023.

“I knew when I came to Carver that I was going to make history,” she said.  “My sister came before me and she made history, so I knew I had to double it. I’m just glad that I get to make my family proud and go to college debt free.”

Like many Carver Early College students, Hollins took advantage of the school’s Dual Enrollment Program, which allowed her to earn college credits at Georgia State University (GSU) while still in high school. In her senior year, she was a full-time student at GSU and took all of her classes on the college campus.

“I went to Georgia State every day, and it made me feel like a real college student,” she said. “I’m really prepared now. The only thing different was I wasn’t staying on campus.”

The school counselors at Carver Early College were persistent in finding scholarship opportunities for students and encouraging them to apply, but it didn’t take much to push this graduating class to find the motivation to discover more opportunities.

“This class, all you have to do is ask them for what you want, and they’ll actually run and achieve it,” Carver Early College school counselor Darion Hutcherson said. “This means a lot for our school and our community. Our goal is to take kids who haven’t been to college, or who have family members that haven’t been to college, and give them an opportunity of a lifetime.”

Graduating senior Billy Manuel will be the first in his family to attend college, and he’s one of at least 15 Carver Early College students who earned more than $1million in scholarships. He is also a POSSE Foundation scholar and will be attending Bard College in the Fall where he plans to double major in mass communications and theater on a pre-law track.

“I’m very proud of what we’ve accomplished because it shows that we have perseverance, dedication, and that we’re very motivated,” Manuel said. “Carver prepared me to have an open mind, to always be an advocate for myself and always to speak up for others when I feel like there’s no one there.”

This new school record is bigger than a dollar amount for the Carver community. It’s a representation of the promise and capabilities of the students who are thriving at Carver Early College.

This graduating class had their middle school years interrupted by the pandemic, and still rose to the occasion to reach the finish line with a plethora of post-secondary options available to them.

“This shows not only the scholars who are coming behind them, but it also shows the stakeholders in our community that our scholars possess the perseverance, grit, determination, and focus to accomplish anything they set their minds to,” Dr. Rogers said. “It took our first year for us to really get the jitters out, help them mature a little bit, and help them focus. But once they understood what the expectation was here, they simply rose.”