A young Latino dreamed of Harvard. He made it happen.

A Harvard freshman’s tweet about being the only low-income, first generation, underprivileged student from Chicago in his graduating class has gone viral — the same week reports revealed that 43 percent of white students admitted to the institution were either legacies, recruited athletes, children of faculty or staff, or relatives of donors.

“I’m the only kid at Harvard right now, class of 2023, that’s from Chicago and didn’t go to a selective enrollment school, a private school, a predominately affluent suburban school,” Amado Candelario wrote in a tweet that received more than 86,000 likes as of Friday afternoon. “I’m the only Chicago neighborhood school kid. It’s sad but I DID THAT and I’m proud of myself!!”

Candelario, who grew up with his immigrant mother from Mexico and two sisters in West Lawn, Chicago, had been dreaming of attending Harvard — which accepted 4.5 percent of applicants in 2019 — since he was in sixth grade.

“The only thing people ever talked about when you mentioned was how good it was and how it was the best post-secondary education you could get,” Candelario told NBC News. “I grew up in a lot of poverty and violence and I wanted something better for myself.”

Amado Candelario.Courtesy Amado Candelario

Candelario said he started thinking about college early because he knew that he needed to figure out a way to pay for the hefty price tag of a college education. The total 2018-2019 cost of attending Harvard University without financial aid is $67,580 for tuition, room, board and fees combined, according to the school.

source: nbcnews.com