Dream realized: Cranston West’s Alam accepted to five Ivy League schools, plans to attend Harvard

By Jen Cowart
Posted 5/5/16

Each spring, high school seniors have a big decision on their hands – what their next step will be. Many have career paths or military service in mind, and many have college acceptances rolling …

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Dream realized: Cranston West’s Alam accepted to five Ivy League schools, plans to attend Harvard

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Each spring, high school seniors have a big decision on their hands – what their next step will be. Many have career paths or military service in mind, and many have college acceptances rolling in.

Choosing which college to attend can be overwhelming, especially if you’re Sarah Alam, Cranston High School West’s 2016 class valedictorian. Sporting the school’s highest GPA since 2014 and the second highest GPA since 2012, Alam will be graduating with a 5.063, first in her class of 399 students. She has been accepted into five Ivy League schools, waitlisted at two, and accepted into a host of other top institutions.

“In my tenure here, this is the most Ivy League schools anyone has gotten into,” said her guidance counselor, Deana Golini. “In 2012 we had someone get into three, two years ago we had someone get into three, but this is the most we’ve seen in recent years.”

As of May 1, Alam had to make her final decision, and she has officially chosen to attend Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. Her top four institutions of choice included John Hopkins University, Dartmouth College, and the University of Pennsylvania.

Alam was one of 10 students accepted to Harvard from Rhode Island out of approximately 160 applicants. Five were from private schools and five were from public schools. Overall, Harvard accepted just 5.2 percent of their applicants for the class of 2020, or 2,037 out of 39,041.

Boston College offered Alam its Gabelli Presidential Scholarship, which is given to just 15 outstanding freshmen the school believes have the capacity to become global leaders. It included a full tuition merit scholarship renewable for three additional years, and included study abroad opportunities.

“Ever since my parents first came from Bangladesh, they would take me to the story hours at the Harvard Library, and it had been a dream of theirs for so long that I’d go to Harvard,” Alam said. “It’s been my top choice for a while, but I never thought I’d get in.”

It seems unlikely there would be any post-secondary institution to which Alam would not be accepted, given her top-ranking academic statistics and passion for education. Humble and unassuming in nature, she has already devoted much of her life to helping others locally and in her greater community. Many of her peers and teachers at West feel that their lives are better for having known her.

“She’s been my amazing Math Team coach for the past four years,” said Carolyn Lannon, math department chair and Alam’s calculus teacher. “She’s kind, she’s compassionate, she’s a real humanitarian. She’s humble; Sarah would never brag about herself, and I think the other students were happier about all of her college acceptances than they were about their own, even when they didn’t get theirs.”

Golini said that in six years, she’s never seen that type of support in a graduating class before.

“And yet, the first thing she’d say when she got her acceptances in was that she felt bad for all the other students who didn’t get in,” Golini said. “That level of empathy is rare among kids at her age. She’s exceptional. She cares more about other people than herself.”

Much of what Alam does in the hours when she’s not studying revolves around her desire to help others. She’s a peer tutor at Cranston West, and she’ll tutor any students at any level in any subject, anywhere she can, including in her neighborhood and in her religious community.

Additionally, she has created a youth division of the Society to Help Education in Bangladesh International (SHEBI), and has traveled to the country – where she has extended family members – from the time she was 14 years old in her role as the ambassador. She has helped to raise funds and awareness of disabilities such as autism spectrum disorder, deafness, and blindness.

When the Cranston West Science Olympiad team was being cancelled due because there was no one to run it, Alam volunteered to step in.

“I’m so glad I did it this year,” she said. “All the other students are so happy. This was the first time that a student has run it, and no one else wanted to run it.”

When asked what she’d like to pursue in college and beyond, Alam knows for sure that she’d like it to be in the math and science field, but also realizes that she loves all areas of study. In one of her college application essays, she stated: “My relationship with education is one of unconditional love, admiration and friendship, rivaling that of Penelope and Odysseus. Since a young age, I looked for opportunities to learn something new no matter where I am.”

When looking at colleges, Alam sought a school with a supportive community and a lot of opportunities to explore her varied interests.

“That’s why I like the liberal arts curriculum so much,” she said. “It gives me so much experience.”

Golini can attest to Alam’s love of education with just one look at her transcript.

“Sarah definitely values education,” she said. “She’s like a sponge, she truly loves it. She has taken pretty much every AP class we’ve offered.”

Alam’s success is a testament to her parents’ love of education, and she’s proud to be making them proud as she prepares to start at Harvard in the fall.

“I could never say I have had a favorite class at West. I’ve loved them all. My parents have instilled that love of education in me,” Alam said. “This is very important to them, this is why they came here.”

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