Harvard Bound!

Gatesville High School senior, Alex Johnson, will be taking the leap to an “Ivy League” university following his graduation from high school in May. Johnson, age 18, is the son of Crystal Whalen and Richard Whalen.

Johnson has accomplished many academic achievements while a student at Gatesville High School including being named as a National Merit Scholar Semi-Finalist, an All-Star cast member in the One-Act-Play competition and designated with the National Rural and Small-Town Award as well.

In addition, he has served as the president of the student body and the senior class and was in the Senior Homecoming Court in 2024. He has also served as the drum major for the Fighting Hornet Band.

Academic wise, Johnson has been known to take the most rigorous courses available at Gatesville High School and has also participated in debate class, academic UIL, student council, the PALS program and, in 2023, he was a UIL Champion in Current Issues and Events.

Gatesville ISD has also recognized Johnson during their “spotlight” awards for his academic achievements as well as his hard work.
Recently, Johnson received a letter of acceptance from the prestigious Harvard University. “I’ve wanted to go to Harvard for years, since I was a kid. My first distinct memory was while I was in fourth grade, sitting in the car one night looking up the acceptance rate at Harvard, what classes I should take in high school to boost my resume and what classes they offered,” he said.

As a high school senior, he said, “I only applied to two other schools (other than Harvard), MIT and Cornell. I had over a dozen applications filled out and ready to submit if I was denied from Harvard. I failed to apply to UT where I would have been granted automatic acceptance. I was denied by MIT and waitlisted from Cornell, so if I had been denied from Harvard, my college choices would have been skimmed down. I was extremely lucky to be accepted to my dream school.”

Upon learning of his acceptance into Harvard, Johnson said he was “flabbergasted and shocked when I read the letter. I can’t even describe the feeling I felt. It was just my mom and I when we opened the notices and we didn’t record either of them for the intimacy of the moment, but she almost immediately started crying and we hugged for what felt like forever.”

“Gatesville has clearly prepared me for college. My teachers have taught me challenging and engaging coursework, pushing me to explore further if too easy, and have been the voices of reason when I need it,” he said.

Johnson continued, “Every single teacher I’ve had the privilege of being taught by throughout my educational career has inspired and encouraged me. I did the math earlier and I have had 61 teachers in the last 14 years, and 55 of them were in Gatesville. That is an incomprehensible number and it kind of seems impossible to have that many people change my life, but it’s true. Not just my teachers either, but everyone at GISD and everyone in the community too.”

At the moment, Johnson is slated to concentrate on mathematics at Harvard and he also plans to concentrate on history, earning his secondary field in psychology. He will be attending Harvard in the Fall of this year with classes scheduled to begin September 2.

“To me, I was not accepted into Harvard, but Gatesville was. I was raised by this community, I was taught by this community and I’m extremely proud to be representing this community in Cambridge for the next four years.”

Johnson has been invited to visit the Harvard campus April 27 and 28, but due to high cost and short notice, he is not able to afford it on his own.

In order to visit Harvard, Johnson has set up a GoFundMe account to help raise funds for the trip. It explains the circumstances and exactly what the $2,000 would go toward. Johnson will be competing in the UIL Regional Academic Contest two days prior to the events at Harvard. The first event at Harvard is Sunday, so traveling circumstances will be even stricter.

Those wishing to help Johnson with travel expenses to visit Harvard can visit gofundme.com/f/help-a-gatesville-student-visit-harvard.