Chicago high school student becomes the first in his school’s history to get perfect ACT score

score possible on the ACT, making him the first student at his school to achieve this. Mario Hoover is the first person at Providence-St. Mel School to score 36 on the test used for college admission. The 11th grader is a gifted musician with a 3.9 GPA.

“I want others to know that they can do the same. I’ve been saying a lot today that we are all capable of more than we think we can do,” Hoover told FOX 32 Chicago.

Hoover says his success comes from hard work and an extra nudge from his teachers who saw his potential. Hoover worked through a diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and figured out the best ways to study. He said he enrolled in an ACT prep course and took practice exams. The junior left Chicago Public Schools for the private school in the third grade after his local elementary school closed.

According to a University of Illinois report, several Chicago schools permanently closed between 2000 and 2013, many of the school had majority of African-American students. Hoover’s mother had to find an alternative school for him; Providence-St. Mel is reportedly one of Chicago’s high-performing schools.

“We have a senior this year who earned a 34 on the ACT this year,” Providence-St. Mel Principal Timothy Ervin said. “We’ve had students earn 34s, 35s, 33s.”

Hoover is the first student in the school’s 42-year history to score 36. He also makes up less than 1 percent of students nationally who have secured a perfect score on the test. Just 0.313 percent of total test takers each year achieve a perfect score, reports PrepScholar.

He is also an active member of Providence-St. Mel’s concert choir, and he was accredited by the Illinois Music Education Association.

Hoover, plans to be a neurosurgeon and spends his free time volunteering at the local hospital and Boys and Girls Club.

“He is the future of Black history, in the sense that he has made history here in the present, and that’s going to live on forever,” Ervin said.