CHICAGO — Members of the graduating class from Chicago Bulls College Prep are heading off to college with a large amount of scholarship money.

The class of 2023 has earned more than $20 million in scholarships.

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One of the graduates is 18-year-old Angel Gutierrez from Pilsen, who set a goal as a small child to go to an Ivy League school. With the help of school counselors, Angel is now Harvard-bound as a first-generation college student who earned $3 million in scholarships alone.

Gutierrez aspires to become a lawyer or a neurosurgeon. 

“For low-income students, like me, we do have the ability to achieve our dreams and we can get scholarship money and we can get full rides because colleges do want to invest in the future and specific diverse backgrounds like mine,” Gutierrez said.

“It’s what we’re trying to do every day, through all the challenges, and that is making sure kids understand they can achieve their full potential and do what they want to do even when society says they can’t,” said Shannon Gunty, the Dean of College and Career Counseling for the Chicago Bulls College Prep.

School officials say they’re incredibly proud of the class of 2023 due to making it through the challenges of the pandemic.

The commencement ceremony was held at the UIC Forum.