Yotam Ghebre couldn’t be 100 percent certain, but when he mailed his application for the Gates Millennium scholarship he felt reasonably confident about his chances of winning.

Ghebre, a standout DeKalb Early College Academy (DECA) student, had dedicated numerous hours to writing and editing the eight required essays for the national award. Now, he just had to wait.

“I spent weeks and weeks making sure the application was perfect,” he said.

But, this perfection would meet against 57,000 other applicants—all hoping to snag the prestigious Gates national scholarship funded by a $1.6 billion grant from Bill and Melinda Gates. The award removes financial barriers so that high-performing, low-income students like Ghebre can attend any college they wish on full scholarship until they receive their doctorate, if desired.

The day of reckoning arrived a few weeks ago when Ghebre’s father pulled a packet from the mailbox and yelled for him. They went downstairs to the family dining room table and carefully opened the envelope. “When we saw the word congratulations, we were so happy,” Ghebre recalls.

Like Ghebre, DECA student Antoinette Charles will receive one of this year’s Gates awards, given to 1,000 students nationally.

“I am so happy that these students will receive financial and leadership support throughout the next phase of their education,” said DECA program coordinator Kathryn Hall. “They will serve as great ambassadors and represent the successes of the DECA program.”

This Friday, Ghebre and Charles will line up alongside 85 other DECA students—the largest class ever—to participate in their high school commencement.

 DECA, a joint venture between Georgia Perimeter College and the DeKalb County School District, is one of ten such programs operating across the state. Since 2006, it has enabled college-ready high school students from underrepresented groups to spend their first two years of high school at the academy in Stone Mountain and their final two at Georgia Perimeter’s Clarkston Campus.

Academy students earn high school and college credits concurrently through dual enrollment, which means they can graduate from high school and earn a college associate degree at the same time, like Ghebre and 30 other of his DECA classmates did.

“Students choosing this route have, in five years from the date they received their associate degree, graduated from law school, entered medical school, earned master’s in education and become a news reporter at an NBC Georgia station to name a few,” Hall said, adding that this year’s graduates will attend a number of public and private colleges including Cornell, the University of Georgia, Brandeis, Spelman and Georgia State.

Ghebre will continue his education as a computer engineering major at Georgia Tech. His older brother Naud graduated from DECA last year and already attends Tech, while two younger brothers are DECA students.

The academy has graduated more than 245 students over its nine-year history, with 96 of those simultaneously receiving their high school diploma and associate degree from Georgia Perimeter. This year's graduates earned a collective 3,933 college credits. The May 15 DECA graduation will take place at Stone Mountain’s Berean Christian Church, 2201 Young Road, beginning at 6 p.m.

Parents and students interested in learning more about DeKalb Early Learning Academy can do so at the program’s website.