TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — With the end of another school year, high school seniors across Alabama and the rest of the country are celebrating their accomplishments and looking forward to their futures. One Alabama graduate’s celebrations went viral last week, but not all of the attention it received was positive.
Mari Filer graduated from Central High School in Tuscaloosa as the valedictorian of her senior class with a 4.56 GPA, acceptance to almost 40 colleges, and millions of dollars worth of scholarships. A simple tweet and Facebook post soon gained the attention of thousands on the internet.
“My caption was, ‘graduated as valedictorian, with a 4.56 GPA, over 24 college credits, and over 2.8 million dollars in scholarships,’” she said.
As her post racked up over 50,000 retweets on Twitter, many praised her for her success and her hard work. But of course, this is the internet, so the trolls also came out in full force as well.
Some of the responses were just plain mean, saying “she’s trying to make herself look better by doing this and that,” “that’s a lie, she’s doing this to boost her ego,” and “where are you going to school, Mars University?” Others took a misogynistic tone, asking “what was she doing out of the kitchen?” And still others just seemed uninformed, claiming, “you can’t even get above a 4.0 GPA, but okay.”
Filer and her family aren’t stressing about the attention her posts have received. Mari hopes that her success can be an example to others. “This type of success is available to anybody,” she said.
Her mother, who is an educator herself, echoed her daughter’s hope: “When you show them good direction, then eventually they get to this place where you are no longer nudging, but guiding and following,” she said.
Even with such a large number of college acceptances and scholarship offers, Filer did not have a difficult time deciding on what school she would attend. This fall she’ll start at Florida A&M University on a full-ride scholarship, the alma mater of her father – who was also a high school valedictorian.
The haters and the doubters are no concern to Filer, because she knows where her talent truly comes from.
“When I post my accomplishments or awards, I always give God the credit because it’s His to give,” Filer said, and promised, “God is not done with me yet.”
