I don't think this is absurdly reductionist. As someone born in a poor country, my family's income was barely $2000 per year. Even allowing for a conversion factor of 10 while going to the USA, that is less than half of 50k.

So it might be worth mentioning that this young man has a lot of advantages merely by being born in an average household in a first world country, and being located close enough to Princeton so he could talk to professors there, etc. That should not detract from his achievements, but maybe it can help put them in some kind of perspective.