At the age of 18, Ziad Ahmed has seemingly done it all.
A senior at New Jersey's prestigious Princeton Day School, Ahmed is a Muslim-American with a Bangladeshi heritage — and already an experienced, well-traveled liberal activist.
He's founded social justice organizations, sat on organization boards, worked on presidential campaigns, written for the Huffington Post, given a TedXTalk and received in-person props from former President Barack Obama:
Oh yeah — he writes poetry and plays on his school's squash team.
Ahmed's latest bit of big news: He posted on Twitter over the weekend that he was accepted to Stanford University — and after writing #BlackLivesMatter 100 times for an answer on his admission application:
The question was "What matters to you, and why?" according to Mic, which profiled Ahmed.
And some big left-wing names were quite excited, including former Maryland Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley, on whose presidential campaign Ahmed worked before jumping in to work for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton:
Another of his cheerleaders is Muslim activist Linda Sarsour, a Women's March speaker known for making anti-Israel statements (while others have accused her of supporting Sharia Law):
Ahmed replied to Sarsour's praise by saying, "This means the world <3 Your advocacy, activism, and all that you do inspire me always, and make me PROUD to be American-Muslim. Thank you!"
As for his acceptance to Stanford, Ahmed told Mic that he was "stunned when I opened the update and saw that I was admitted. I didn't think I would get admitted to Stanford at all, but it's quite refreshing to see that they view my unapologetic activism as an asset rather than a liability."
"My unapologetic progressivism is a central part of my identity," he added to the outlet, "and I wanted that to be represented adequately in my application."
Ahmed tweeted that he also was accepted to Princeton University and Yale University.
Ahmed also told Mic his Muslim faith and pursuit of justice — particularly regarding Black Lives Matter — are two sides of the same coin.
"To me, to be Muslim is to be a BLM ally, and I honestly can't imagine it being any other way for me," he told the outlet. "Furthermore, it's critical to realize that one-fourth to one-third of the Muslim community in America are black ... and to separate justice for Muslims from justices for the black community is to erase the realities of the plurality of our community."
After his news hit a wider audience on social media, Ahmed made some clarifications on Twitter:
Ahmed broke the news on Saturday about his acceptance to Stanford and his #BlackLivesMatter answer on the application, and TheBlaze on Tuesday reached out to him to inquire if his original tweet was an April Fools' joke. Ahmed didn't immediately reply to TheBlaze, but later on April 1 he acknowledged the date on Twitter:
(H/T: The College Fix)
