When Tyre Johnson-King was searching for college scholarships, he “googled” Google. The Georgia Perimeter computer science major heard that the search engine company offered some scholarship opportunities for students studying technical fields. 

It was a long shot, he says.

Johnson-King applied for the Google Generation Scholarship for current university students. The $10,000 scholarship is aimed at computer science and computer engineering students who are an underrepresented group in the field.

In April, Johnson-King learned that he will receive the Google Generation scholarship. He was one of 100 students selected nationwide for the scholarship. “There were over 50,000 applicants,” he says.

As part of the program, he also will attend a Scholars Retreat in Silicon Valley, California, June 17-20.

He was bowled over by the news, but Johnson-King had already overcome many odds against him. He left a gang-ridden high school in Pennsylvania to move to Atlanta. “I wasn’t a very good high school student,” he admits. “My mom wanted me to get away from all the negativity.”

“I knew I had to do better in college, but my family doesn’t know much about college,” the first-generation student says.

His attitude changed when he came to Georgia Perimeter. “I decided early on to major in computer science,” says Johnson-King. “Where I come from, the neighborhood was information deprived. Computers and technology are powerful tools, and I want to see the world more connected.”

 At GPC, he became an ENLISTEM scholar, studied the JAVA computer language, learned how to implement different algorithms and developed an educational math video game. He served as vice president of the Dunwoody Phi Theta Kappa organization and organized that group’s Mentors for Academic Progress  project to connect struggling students with student mentors.

Johnson-King wants to help others because he has struggled himself. “I struggled with programming—it was hard,” he says. But he was determined.

He received a lot of tutoring along the way. “I was really motivated to study. I used Georgia Perimeter as my platform to escape and get success,” he says.

The Google Generation scholarship will provide $10,000 for books, room and board and tuition. “The Google Summer Scholars Retreat is to prepare me for their engineering practicum internships, meet engineers and do just everything ‘Googly’ for three days,” he says. 

An Honors student and former vice president of Georgia Perimeter’s math honor society, Johnson-King is on track to complete his studies and graduate this fall. He has been accepted to Drexel University in Philadelphia and the University of Washington in Seattle, where he hopes to enroll.

“I feel so honored to be the first person in my family to attend college, and to now win a scholarship from Google is just amazing.”