Gates Millennium Scholars

The phenomenon that is Deonte Bridges continues, this time with a great profile in Sunday’s AJC by one of their top reporters, Mark Davis. In the article, Davis chronicles the exploits that led to the Washington High valedictorian’s graduation speech and his subsequent celebrity sparked the YouTube video we posted back on June 14. Since then Bridges has been mentioned on commercial radio around the nation and profiled on local TV, and our video has been repurposed by other YouTube users to great success. We even spent some time with him to talk about his sudden celebrity status on Talk Up APS.

Here’s our favorite part of the AJC profile …

He’s more than a bookworm. Bridges wrote a rap song decrying racism and bigotry and performed it at a 2009 Anti-Defamation League dinner. Bridges successfully completed a four-year writing program that matched students with mentors. He routinely took time to speak at a local YMCA, where the kids called him “The Valedictorian.” Once, his dad had to bring a box to a ceremony to cart home all his son’s awards.

This isn’t the first time Deonte Bridges has been profiled in the AJC, which included him in a previous article about the Freedom Writers project.