Nicholas Watson has made history as he finished high school with the highest GPA in the school’s history, (4.8). Yet, that was not this graduating seniors only accomplishment. Of course, he is the Class of 2021’s Valedictorian. Along with that, the Arkansas native received over $1.5 million dollars in scholarship offers and was accepted to 45 different universities across the United States.
“Overall, I’m just grateful to have an opportunity to be where I am right now because I wasn’t ever meant to be here,” said Watson said in an interview with ArkLaTex.“Besides autism and ADHD, they said I wasn’t ever going to comprehend, read, math all of that. No matter what circumstance or whoever defines you. You’re the one who defines yourself. ”
In addition to Watson overcoming the odds, crediting God for showing him, that he could, he was also an athlete, participating in 4 different sports: track, cross country, soccer, and basketball.
“When he was 6 years old we were told he had ADHD, a central auditory processing disorder, and a speech delay. His first sentence was I go bathroom,” Nicholas’ mother, Marian Watson, said in an interview with TXKToday.com.
She continued, “I didn’t want to believe any of that at first. So, we made it our mission to ensure that we did everything we could to help him be successful and to prove everyone wrong. We had lots of therapy appointments, lots of research on our own part and a lot of digging and prayer that got us here today, and we are forever grateful for the support of St. James School and the Texarkana Arkansas School District who worked with Nicholas, meeting his needs, providing him with resources and allowing him to be a team player while focusing on his academics. Without everyone’s support he wouldn’t be here today.”
Nicholas is headed to Harding University with plans to pursue a degree in electrical engineering.
