Hi, you two.
Hi.
Hi, so nice to meet both of you.
First of all, congratulations.
That's an amazing accomplishment and a very emotional video.
Thank you so much.
Yes, definitely, thank you.
I'm freaking out right now talking to you.
It's like surreal.
But, ooh, thank you so much.
Thank you.
Well, I'm freaking out talking to you, too.
You're pretty special.
Obviously, we have to talk about your mom.
You lost her five years ago, if you
want to tell everybody what happened.
So on January 21, 2015, she had a stage 4 brain aneurysm.
And at the time, I was 11.
And it was just me and my grandmother.
And she had just gotten home from work.
She pulled into the driveway.
And she just basically went brain dead in front of us.
And so at the age of 11, I was kind of confused.
I didn't know what was going on.
And so from there, she was in and out of the ICU,
in and out of long-term care facilities,
racking up medical bills, and stuff like that.
And then on May 25, 2016, she passed away.
Wow.
She was in a coma pretty much that whole time.
Most people with an aneurysm die right away, right?
[INAUDIBLE]
Yeah.
They didn't expect her to last 24 to 48 hours.
So they were basically telling us to say our goodbyes
and things like that.
I was kind of glad that she lasted as long as she did.
It gave the kids a chance to get used to the idea
and also some time for them to say their goodbyes
before she did pass away.
I can't imagine how hard that must have been.
And so Skylar, did you know then when
you applied that this was what you were going to do
when you applied for college?
Yes, for sure.
Even though my mom has passed away--
for almost six years now, she's been gone--
I still learn something new from her every single day.
And she has these note cards with affirmations.
And they're all over my room.
And I read them every single day.
She has journals where you kind of
see her mature from a young lady into a young woman.
And I use that kind of as like a guiding light for me.
And she's like my role model.
And so I knew that I wanted her to be
a part of this experience.
Because she's helped me, even though she's been gone,
grow into the woman that I am today.
That's amazing.
I mean, that's so great that you have that,
that she left journals, and that you have all of that to read,
to continue to learn from her, like you said.
That's incredible.
So you weren't sure you were going to get in.
Although, your dad, James, knew you would get in.
But you must have been so nervous.
I mean, did you think, oh, my God, I'm sitting here,
we're filming this, I'm at her grave, and I may open it
and I didn't get in?
Yes.
I was like, if I drove out here early in the morning
to my mom's grave just to get denied,
I'm going to be crying for like the rest of the year.
It was interesting.
Because we get there.
We get everything set up.
And the video that she posted is a short version.
It took like 12 to 15 minutes for her
to actually click the button.
And I'm sitting there going, Skylar, push the button,
push the button, push the button.
She finally gets up the nerve to push the button.
The system had logged her out, because she took too long.
We had to start all over again.
Oh, my God.
And so there's a special reason you
wanted to go to Duke, right?
Yes.
So I've always been in love with the ocean.
I've been enthralled by it since I was little.
And Duke is the number-one marine science
school in the entire nation.
And it's so diverse.
It's so academically intense, which I really appreciate.
And since I was little, I wanted to become
a marine biotechnologist.
And they analyze the marine flora and fauna
on the ocean floor.
And they dive into like the molecular genetics and genomics
behind all of that to gain a better
understanding of the diseases or the disorders,
like the brain aneurysm that my mom had,
that a lot of ocean life is resistant to.
So I love helping people.
And I love the ocean.
So I knew it was like a perfect job for me.
That's fantastic.
I love that you want to do that.
It's another reason that we should take care of our oceans.
Because we have so much more to learn.
There's all kinds of answers and medicinal things
that we are going to learn from the ocean.
Skylar and James, we have to take a break.
We're going to be back and talk to you some more.
We'll be back.
So, Skylar, you got into Duke, which is amazing.
But it must be pretty expensive to go there.
Yes.
Duke before financial aid is about $80,000
every single year.
And after our financial aid that we received, it's about $60,000
a year.
And so since the beginning of the school year,
I've been applying to so many scholarships.
I've applied to like 62 so far.
And my cousins, Ja'Nique and Laniece,
set up a GoFundMe for me.
So I'm hoping with the two I'm going to make it.
I'm very determined.
I say my affirmations every night.
So, yes, I'm trying to be very positive about everything.
Well, I told Skylar, I said, you focus
on applying for scholarships, keeping your GPA up.
She has a 4.2 GPA.
I said, and I'm making sure you get there.
You're going to Duke.
I don't care what it takes, how many jobs I have to do,
what I got to do, she's going to Duke.
Wow.
Well, that's a great dad right there.
You're here on a really good day.
You wouldn't believe what a coincidence this is.
Because today, we're giving away our annual scholarship.
And it's right here.
It's the Ellen DeGeneres Show Shutterfly Scholarship
for incredible young women from Loganville, Georgia, who
get into Duke with a 4.2 GPA and want to be a marine biologist.
[LAUGHTER]
So that's so strange.
I feel really good about your chances.
Let me just see who wins today.
Oh.
Oh, my God, Skylar, you are the winner,
and you're getting $25,000--
[CHEERING]
--to help pay for school.
What a day for you to be on.
Oh, man.
(TEARFULLY) Thank you so much.
What an incredible coincidence for you to be on today.