Russell County graduate’s TikTok spreads after she earns $1.8M in scholarships
Isabella Williams couldn’t contain her laughter as she walked across the floor of Russell County High School’s gymnasium.
Wearing a black dress with her long curls pulled back in a low ponytail, Williams listened as RCHS’s assistant principal, Samantha Shoup, read Williams’ list of accomplishments to the audience on Senior Night, May 6.
Graduating with a 4.32 GPA, Williams is the Distinguished Young Woman of Russell County. She was the third-place state Public Speech winner, National Honor Society president, color guard captain, a Superintendent Student Advisory Council co-chair and a founder of the Williams for Humanity nonprofit organization.
At this point, Shoup’s voice began to get drowned out by the crowd cheering for Williams as she accepted a packet from the presenters. Walking away from Shoup and the presenters, Williams motioned to her supporters, urging them to be quiet.
“Wait!,” Williams mouthed to the crowd. “Wait!”
The crowd got quiet just in time to hear how much money Williams had been offered in scholarships.
“She has $1,871,764,” Shoup announced as the gym erupted in cheers, unknowingly becoming part of a viral video that would amass over 370,000 views and over 80,000 likes on TikTok.
Williams was shocked by the support she received because of the video, as she reflects on her high school accomplishments and looks forward to her future ambitions while preparing to attend Howard University in the fall.
Favorite accomplishment isn’t academic or nonprofit work
Of all the extracurricular activities Williams was involved in during high school, she said, her favorite was being in the color guard for the marching band.
She auditioned in eighth grade, Williams said, and stayed on the guard all four years of high school.
“While it’s not academic, or it’s not my nonprofit work, I don’t think I’d be the person that I am without it,” she said. “It kind of forced me to be personable and learn how to interact with all types of people. (It’s a way) to express who you are not just through your words and grades, but also through your performance. That’s a side people don’t really get to see about me.”
When people came to a football game, Williams said, they were able to experience the performance and take part in the squad’s artistic expression.
“This year we did ‘Thriller,’” she said. “Do you know how many people got up and did the ‘Thriller’ (dance)? They love ‘Thriller.’”
Addressing needs in the community
At the start of Williams’ senior year of high school, she was working two jobs and making money, she said, but she didn’t feel fulfilled.
“I decided I wanted to do something better with my time,” Williams said.
Williams had already decided she was interested in political science, and had been searching for ways to get more involved in her community.
Her community’s smaller population made it harder to find opportunities, Williams said. But when the government shutdown began last fall, she and her peers saw a growing need arise.
Two of her fellow Beta Club members, Mailey Durance and Kristien Tyner, joined her in co-founding the Williams for Humanity nonprofit.
“There’s about 400 families in Russell County itself that are military,” she said. “And they weren’t getting paid, so a lot of them didn’t have access to food. They didn’t have access to their paychecks. We didn’t know what to do, but we knew that we needed to do something.”
They created their first initiative, Winter Wishes, and created a mobile food bank that fed over 85 families during the last week before December break, Williams said.
“We also had a free winter clothing shop,” she said. “So, it’s not supposed to feel like charity. It’s supposed to feel like you have the luxury of shopping without the hassle of the cost.”
Families with kids were able to shop with tote bags, Williams said. She heard from people who visited the mobile food bank and shop that the supplies eased worries about how they would feed their kids.
“We can just relax and enjoy our break,” Williams was told.
Williams also found ways to help as a member of the Superintendent’s Student Advisory Council.
Being a teenager helps provide a fresh perspective, she said, and this helped her connect with her peers and their families to find out what the needs were.
“I’ve helped them feed their families,” Williams said. “I’ve given free books.”
She also helped bring three new Advanced Placement (AP) classes to the school that will start being offered next year, Williams said.
“Our academic prowess is coming up at our school, as well,” she said.
Williams got the idea while at a summit in Atlanta. The classes will be AP Biology, AP Business Finance and AP Cybersecurity.
“Starting for the class of 2028, they’re required to pass a financial literacy test,” she said. “So giving them that option, instead of taking the normal test, and also receiving college credit is really important.”
The large military community was also a consideration for Williams, she said.
“Having the ability to mobilize education is really important because no matter where you go, you can take those AP credits with you,” Williams said.
College credits and dual enrollment can be dependent on the state, she said, which means if someone moves from Alabama to California, their credits might not transfer.
“AP is national,” she said. “So, giving students an option to have education that translates no matter where they go is really important.”
Raising Isabella Williams
Williams’ parents took her a space museum when she was 2 years old, said her mother, Michelle Diaz Williams.
The toddler wanted to an astronaut, Michelle said.
“I’m gonna go to the moon and come back for dinner,” a 2-year-old Williams told her mother.
“You can,” Michelle responded. “It’s going to take a little longer.”
“Well then, I’m not going to be an astronaut,” her daughter responded.
When Williams got older, she loved dinosaurs, Michelle said, so she bought her dinosaur books and other related items.
“I just wanted her to be whatever she wanted,” she said. “I didn’t want to say, ‘Oh no, that’s just for boys to do.’”
Williams also loved dressing up her Barbie dolls. And for a long time, she was interested in going into fashion merchandising.
Her social media handle, educated.barbie, calls back to this passion.
Williams shocked Michelle when she told her that she wanted to go into politics, Michelle said.
“I was like, OK, you do you,” she said.
Williams’ father, Christopher Williams, retired from the military and started a pressure washing company. Michelle works for a steel company.
As parents, the two gave Williams the space to explore her interests. Christopher joked that with Williams going off to college, he will now have “more time to do stuff.”
“Dad, pick me up here,” he mimicked Williams. “Dad, take me here. Dad, do this.”
The strangest part about their daughter’s accomplishments, Christopher said, is to hear strangers talking about her as if they know her or listening to the list of things she’s been involved in that even he didn’t know about, he said.
It’s a good feeling to see what other people see in his daughter, Christopher said.
“There’s no way, as a parent, you can know everything your child does,” he said. “It’s good when you see someone on the outside looking in say, ‘Man, I want her to get it,’ or when the mayor shakes your hand and says, ‘Hey, your daughter is going places,’ or the principal says, ‘Hey, I gotta go find some scholarship for your daughter because she’s unstoppable.’”
If Christopher had one word to describe Williams, he said, it would be “unstoppable.”
Scholarships and college
When Williams began applying for scholarships and universities, she was advised to apply to almost every school in Alabama to give herself options.
She ended up only applying to the schools she thought would be good fits, including Auburn University.
Williams put some of the communication skills she learned as a Distinguished Young Woman of Russell into practice when doing interviews for some of the scholarships. She was worried about some of the scholarships because they were done over Zoom, rather than in person.
“It feels awkward,” Williams said.
As an only child, the entire process was new to her.
“I don’t have any older siblings,” she said. “I never knew what it was like. And seeing the acceptances roll in and realizing I got a presidential scholarship. I got another presidential scholarship. They offered me an honors college position. It was weird, almost. It was unnatural.”
Despite putting in the work, Williams said, she didn’t always appreciate the results and what could come of it.
Ultimately, Williams earned $1,871,764 from a mixture of collegiate merit, honors college offers, and general scholarships. Almost every school she applied to provided over half tuition scholarship, and she received multiple honors college stipends.
Although she was initially set to attend Auburn, Williams found she could not turn down Howard University.
“I love Howard,” she said. “I’m majoring in political science with a focus on public policy analysis. I thought, ‘Well, if I get into this school, then that would be great. It’s in the nation’s capital, it’s D.C., you don’t get any better than that.”
Williams officially graduated from Russell County High School on May 14.
