http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/07/us/from-janitor-to-harvard/index.html?hpt=hp_bn1 An absolute must read and video to watch. After years of moving and hopping from school to school, a 17-year-old girl was abandoned by her drug-abusing parents and left homeless. Her community rallied around her, providing shelter and running water, and she became a high school janitor while attending the same school. Her teachers encouraged the straight-A student to apply for college. She applied to Harvard. Letter of recommendation by a teacher. "Most students who face challenges that are not even remotely as difficult as Dawn's give up. This young lady has, unlike most of us, known hunger. She's known abuse and neglect, she's known homelessness and filth. Yet she's risen above it all to become such an outstanding young lady." She was accepted, full scholarship for tuition, room and board. Please read the story.
The parents that abandoned her and left her homeless? How terrible. Part of it might be she's smart and aware enough to know they're dragging HER down as much. Maybe a little tiny piece that says "good riddance". But those parental hardship things can resurface later. So hopefully she's at peace with it enough. And there's gonna be some arrogant scientists who say that kids are "genetically predispositioned" to be what they are, in spite of upbringing. My ass. She coulda easily been a dropout or p*rn actress or a druggie herself.
I didn't see any SAT scores in that puff piece so let's keep that ass in the library. Get an Econ or Engineering degree and table the homeless talk until Goldman or grad school interviews.
She studied by candle and didn't have running water. She had to flush toilets with water she carried back from the park. She also didn't shower for months at a time in middle school because no one ever taught her the importance. Achieving without any role models or supervision is amazing. I grew up dirt poor coming to this country as a refuge but I had lots of love and great role models. What she did was much more difficult because I didn't have people dragging me down.
Haha. Bunch of hippies. In Texas kids whose parents leave them and yet still make good grades go to jail.
