I was awarded $1 million in scholarships to NYU. I also sacrificed a lot of my teenage life to get there.

The author received more than $1 million in combined scholarship offers from over 20 colleges before attending NYU. Courtesy of Omarion Calloway I was offered more than $1 million in scholarships from over 20 colleges. I spent hours every night searching for scholarships and financial aid. I ultimately earned a full ride to NYU, but getting there was a job in itself. When I was 18, local headlines and social media posts about me all focused on the exact same number: I was accepted into more than 20 colleges and offered over $1 million in combined scholarship funding. I'm sure that to people reading the news, that seven-figure total sounded like a lottery win . What the headlines missed was the invisible labor it took to get there. People saw the final funding amount.