Tafsia Shikdar, daughter of a Bangladeshi migrant was awarded a scholarship to MIT, a top ten university worldwide. The girl went to school in Newham and lives in a normal flat with her father, an IT support worker, her mother, a school lunch time supervisor and her three brothers. However, the girl’s outstanding GCSE results and prospective A-level results speak for themselves. Tafsia left secondary school with 11 A* GCSE grades and is expected to score A* grades in maths, further maths, physics, biology and chemistry at A-levels. She was interviewed by an MIT scout in a London Café and awarded a scholarship place afterwards. “MIT simply wants the brightest mind from all over the world and they do not care about the social, financial or ethical background of these people. I am extremely excited to go to America, soon and study at the same university where Buzz Aldrin studied.”
source: http://www.standard.co.uk/news/education/student-from-deprived-newham-wins-place-at-top-university-mit-a3501796.html