Kingsley Iyawe is one special young man he is the first male valedictorian in Carver’s School of Technology history. With a 3.96 GPA and an 1870 out of 2400 on the SAT, 
he is smart. “When he took the test the first time, he had over 1700 on his first SAT. Iyawe was only short a perfect score in mathematics by 20 points,” said Doanes. Iyawe applied to 40 colleges and universities and was offered scholarships worth a staggering $2.5 million, including the prestigious Gates Millennium Scholarship.
The road to the top of his class was not easy. It required hard work, dedication and the will to overcome one of the biggest hurdles a young man could ever face. “The toughest time was when I lost my mom to cancer. That was in my 9th grade year right around the end of that and throughout. She was diagnosed around December 2010, so I had to go to school December to May thinking about that,” Iyawe said. Despite the pain and confusion Iyawe pushed on.
“I had to realize that at some point you had to keep going. You have to cope with the loss of your mother and you have to keep going on because the world is not going to stop,” said Iyawe. “I am also most thankful for my father who always believed in my ability to conquer any challenge and he taught me to deal with adversity with dignity and integrity.”
Iyawe shared his talents and academic prowess with others, as a sophomore tutoring upperclassman in Spanish and teaching a SAT prep course. “He walked around the first part of the year with a SAT book, ACT study book. You don’t see that in high school you know? Students that do that are looked down upon as nerds or whatever, but Iyawe, he really didn’t care,” said Rosie Onwuneme, a teacher at Carver.
Iyawe told his peers the secret to his success is no secret at all. “If you just work hard, if you just study, if you put the time in you can achieve the same score.” Saturday afternoon Iyawe will walk across the Civic Center stage, give his valedictorian speech and receive his diploma. “My mom will be looking down on me. That is going to be chills. I will just have chills on my face,” Iyawe said. He will be attending Morehouse College in June majoring in mathematics.