Pittsburgh-Area Teen Wins Prestigious Gates Scholarship

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PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - A local teen is the recipient of the prestigious Gates Scholarship, provided by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Nearly 29,000 high school seniors applied and 300 were selected.

Brenden Jones speaks modestly about his academic achievements.

The 2018 valedictorian of the Propel Andrew Street High School scored 1440 out of 1600 on the SAT, and only made one B the entire time he was in school.

"Math has always been my thing, I like playing with numbers," he said.

Brenden will attend Northwestern University in the fall to study economics. The award covers all college expenses, even health insurance and trips home.

For four years at Northwestern, that's nearly $300,000 in financial aid.

"People talk a lot of about student loans and how much they hate them. So I never really wanted to go that route," he said.

The 17-year-old showed KDKA-TV his box of acceptance and award letters. There's Dartmouth, USC, Notre Dame, Carnegie Mellon, Rice and the list goes on. He received nearly $800,000 in scholarships.

"I didn't really care for school, but I didn't hate it either and I never really started to think about college until about 10th grade," he said.

Applying for the Gates Scholarship was a long process of essays, test scores and an interview.

"I was really nervous for that one. That was probably the most important interview I've ever had," he said.

In April, he received an email.

"It said congratulations and I didn't know what to do, I'm stuck at work for another three hours and I just got the news that I don't have to pay for college anymore," he said.

This summer, Brenden was flown to Dallas to meet the other 299 Gates Scholars. Bill Gates wasn't there, but Brenden already knows who he is."

"The guy who made my Xbox," he said.