{"id":1615,"date":"2025-10-15T12:44:20","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T12:44:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/1615\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T12:44:20","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T12:44:20","slug":"upper-darby-high-school-graduate-follows-in-brothers-footsteps-to-academic-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/1615\/","title":{"rendered":"Upper Darby High School graduate follows in brother&#8217;s footsteps to academic success"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An Upper Darby High School graduate, inspired by her big brother, is getting recognition for her academic accomplishments.<\/p>\n<p>Amaya Alston was accepted to 22 colleges, which offered her a combined $2.2 million in merit-based scholarships over the course of four years.<\/p>\n<p>But Alston, who graduated on Monday, is not the only superstar in her family.<\/p>\n<p>Her older brother, track star Jayden Alston, was offered a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/philadelphia\/news\/upper-darby-pennsylvania-scholarships-college-jayden-alston\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">million dollars in merit-based college scholarships<\/a> after struggling in elementary school. He graduated from Upper Darby High School in 2024 and is now a student at West Chester University.<\/p>\n<p>                              <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/philadelphia\/video\/delaware-county-student-accepted-to-20-colleges-after-struggling-in-early-education\/\" class=\"embed__headline-link\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>          Delaware County student accepted to 20 colleges after struggling in early education<\/p>\n<p>          02:04<\/p>\n<p>                      <\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Jayden had a huge impact on me growing up,&#8221; Amaya Alston said. &#8220;He was always my biggest role model and I always looked up to him.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>After <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/philadelphia\/news\/upper-darby-pennsylvania-scholarships-college-jayden-alston\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Jayden Alston<\/a> became the blueprint for success in his family, he passed the torch to his sister. Amaya Alston is now heading to East Stroudsburg University on a full scholarship for nursing.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I feel ecstatic, and I&#8217;m happy that all my hard work has paid off,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/amaya-alston-1.jpg#.jpeg\" alt=\"amaya-alston-1.jpg \" height=\"349\" width=\"620\" class=\" lazyload\"  loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                CBS Philadelphia<\/p>\n<p>Even though Jayden and Amaya Alston will be at different colleges this fall, each one is only a phone call away if the other needs help.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If anything, I look up to Amaya,&#8221; Jayden Alston said. &#8220;Amaya is my baby sister, and I love her more than anything in the world.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The siblings&#8217; dad said he&#8217;s excited to see what&#8217;s next.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m proud of my kids,&#8221; father Jamar Alston said. &#8220;My wife and I, we raised two good kids. They&#8217;ve grown up together. It&#8217;s only fitting that one inspires the other.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>An older brother carved a path for his younger sister, who is now stepping into her own spotlight. The legacy continues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Upper Darby High School graduate, inspired by her big brother, is getting recognition for her academic accomplishments.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1616,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1594,212,28,147,149,1248,148,150],"class_list":["post-1615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upper-darby","tag-college","tag-delaware-county","tag-pennsylvania","tag-upper-darby","tag-upper-darby-headlines","tag-upper-darby-high-school","tag-upper-darby-news","tag-upper-darby-township"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}