The world is hers.
At just 13, Alena Analeigh Wicker has been accepted to be among the ranks of the University of Alabama’s Heersink School of Medicine 2024 class.
Wicker was accepted as part of the school’s Early Assurance Program, which works with HBCUs in Alabama to offer exceptional students early acceptance into medical schools, according to The Washington Post.
Obviously overjoyed, Wicker shared the news on Instagram.
“I graduated High school LAST YEAR at 12 years old and here I am one year later I’ve been accepted into Med School at 13. I’m a junior in college,” she wrote in the caption.
“Statistics would have said I never would have made it. A little black girl adopted from Fontana California. I’ve worked so hard to reach my goals and live my dreams,” she continued, adding that she was grateful for the support of her mother, Daphne McQuarter.
“Mama I made it. I couldn’t have done it without you. You gave me every opportunity possible to be successful.”
She continued: “You are the best mother a kid could ever ask for. You always believed in me. You allowed me space to grow and become, make mistakes without making me feel bad. You allowed me the opportunity to experience the world.”
Outside of academics, Wicker said she loves going to the movies, baking and hanging out with her friends.
“I’m still a normal 13-year-old,” she told The Washington Post.
Wicker currently studies biological sciences at both Arizona State University and Oakwood University.
“I just have extremely good time management skills and I’m very disciplined,” she added.
This isn’t the first watershed moment for Wicker, who is also the youngest student to ever intern at NASA.
“I was around three or four years old when I became fascinated with the stars and space and LEGOs,” Wicker told The Baltimore Times. “My mom began taking me to different astronomy nights and NASA Centers. I remember walking in saying ‘I am going to work here one day, and I will be the youngest girl of color to work here.'”
She said her dream is to become a flight surgeon and “work with astronauts.”
Wicker is also the founder of Brown STEM Girl, an organization aimed to help young girls of color enter careers in STEM. She was also a finalist for 2022’s TIME‘s Top Kid of the Year.
“What is age?” she rhetorically questioned. “You’re not too young to do anything. I feel like I have proven to myself that I can do anything that I put my heart and mind to.”
