When you think of someone with a 5.0 grade point average and a 2100 SAT score, you usually think of a student that has a private school education, and also someone that is has their head stuck in a book at all times.

Meet Akintunde Ahmad, a 2014 graduate of Oakland Tech High School who has dreams of becoming a lawyer. Ahmad not only is a stellar student, he also is a star baseball player – he received MVP honors for his baseball league. He also plays three instruments.

Ahmad had offers to almost every Ivy League school. A couple days after he came back from a visit to Yale, he came to visit BASF’s Interim Executive Director Yolanda Jackson and Diversity Pipeline Programs Director Jareem Gunter. Gunter referred Ahmad to someone who he thought would make a great mentor, solo attorney Na’il Benjamin. The two of them attended the Charles Houston Bar Association’s Judicial Reception so that Ahmad could network with African American judges and lawyers.

After his BASF visit, Ahmad began to gain global recognition for his achievements. He even appeared on the Ellen DeGeneres Show, where he announced that he would be attending Yale in the fall.

BASF and the Justice & Diversity Center are excited to be a part of Akintunde Ahmad’s journey of becoming a lawyer.

Learn more: For more information about mentoring opportunities, email Jareem Gunter at jgunter@sfbar.org.