Parkland Shooting Survivor Turned Gun Control Activist David Hogg Accepted Into Harvard

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Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg has been accepted into Harvard just months after he launched a high profile campaign for stricter gun control.

The 18-year-old student survived the Valentine’s Day attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, this year.

Seventeen people were killed and a further 17 injured when expelled former student, Nikolas Cruz, entered the school with a rifle and opened fire.

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In the wake of the massacre, David, along with fellow classmates such as Emma González and Cameron Kasky, helped launch the March for Our Lives movement.

At the time, the student spoke out on gun control during an interview with CNN, saying:

My message to lawmakers and Congress is, please, take action. Ideas are great and wonderful and they help you get re-elected and everything. But what is more important is actual action, impertinent action that results in saving thousands of lives.

What we really need is action. We can say, ‘we’re gonna do all these things’. Thoughts and prayers. What we need more than that is action. Please.

This is the 18th [school shooting] this year. That is unacceptable. We’re children. You guys are the adults. You need to take action and play a role. Work together, get over all your politics and get something done.

Since then, David has become an advocate of gun control and continually goes on marches and speaks out against gun violence. And now his hard work has paid off, as his mum announced earlier this week that he has been accepted into Harvard University.

As reported by TMZ, Rebecca Boldrick has said she is ‘super proud’ of her son and ‘excited’ for his future at the prestigious university.

David’s mum had previously mentioned to New York Magazine about the possibility of her son going to Harvard, as they had been to events with professors at the university who had said they want him to be a student there.

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However, she also said the family wouldn’t be able to afford it, saying:

We could never afford Harvard. Never. It wasn’t on our radar. I looked it up and saw how much it cost and said, ‘There is no way.’ With any luck at all, he can get into Harvard and they can help us financially.

But now David has confirmed that he will in fact be attending the university, taking to Twitter to announce his plans to attend the university earlier today (December 22).

He wrote:

Thank you all for the well wishes, I’ll be attending Harvard in the fall with a planned major in Political Science.

And David isn’t a stranger to the Massachusetts campus; he has already delivered two talks at the university this year, and some of his relatives previously attended the school.

The news comes one week after another Parkland survivor, Jaclyn Corin, announced that she had also been accepted into Harvard.

Taking to Twitter, she said:

HARD WORK PAYS OFF #HARVARD2023???

Congratulations guys.

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Lucy Connolly

A Broadcast Journalism Masters graduate who went on to achieve an NCTJ level 3 Diploma in Journalism, Lucy has done stints at ITV, BBC Inside Out and Key 103. While working as a journalist for UNILAD, Lucy has reported on breaking news stories while also writing features about mental health, cervical screening awareness, and Little Mix (who she is unapologetically obsessed with).