A school bulletin board tells part of the story, with a sign indicating the Ivy League schools (mostly all of them) that accepted Fatima, as she prepares to graduate from the exclusive Hewitt School for young women. Next year Marie is heading to Harvard.
Both Boston and the Upper East Side of Manhattan are a long way from Marie's home in East Flatbush, where she and her family shared the acceptance letters with Eyewitness News.
Her mother got the news from Fatima on her cellphone while riding on a city bus.
"By the time she got into Harvard, I really wanted to jump up on the bus and just scream out, 'Everyone, my daughter got accepted into Yale, Harvard, Penn, Johns Hopkins, and Brown," said Fabienne Hyacinthe.
Fatima was also accepted to Case Western and Georgetown.
Fatima and other students whose parents would not be able to afford sending them to exclusive private schools and partnered with schools like Hewitt through a program called A Better Chance.
"Fatima is exactly the type of student we are looking for when we are thinking of students who can go out there and change the world," said Director Chantal Stevens.
Her Hewitt family is not surprised at Fatima's success.
"I've been here for a very long time and I met her when she came in 8th grade; she's always been really nice and she totally deserves it," says fellow student Schuyler Rowe.
The head of Hewitt School is also pleased. "Fatima is an outstanding student who seeks the strongest and most rigorous academic program that she can find," said Linda MacMurray-Gibbs.
Those who know her say Marie Fatima Hyacinthe is a name we should remember.
