Homeless Student Earns Full Ride Scholarship To Harvard University

May 30, 2019 by apost team

Alexander the Great said that nothing is impossible to the man who tries, and Helen Keller said hope is that which feels the intangible, sees the invisible, and achieves the impossible. If you’ve had trials and tribulations in your life that have ever seemed impossible and insurmountable, then you’ll be able to relate to how Richard “Tre” Jenkins went from homeless to Harvard. 

Many people dream of attending prestigious universities, such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton, or Brown. For a few, like Daniel Eugene "Rudy" Ruettiger, those dreams are achieved after years of hard work and dedication. But those rags-to-riches-stories are few and far between and remain an almost impossible dream for so many. 

Richard “Tre” Jenkins dreamed big, tried hard, and became another success story to give all those dreamers out there just a little more hope to feel the intangible, see the invisible, and achieve the impossible. 

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Ivy League acceptance is hard, and hard, in this case, means practically impossible for most. Almost 43,000 hopefuls from across the world vied for one of just 1,962 acceptance letters last year. While Ivy League admission rates rarely surpass 10 percent, Harvard’s last acceptance rate was less than five percent. 

Now, imagine for a moment adding that you’ve grown up homeless, lived in shelters, and suffered health issues as you try to make your high school career be successful enough to impress the likes of a university only admitting less than five percent of applicants.

Yeah, why not just add a stick of dynamite, right? 

Tre is a fighter, though. He didn’t let being underprivileged stand in the way of his dreams. He didn’t let other students bullying him for being smart deter him, even though stress did frequently land him in the hospital with health issues. 

During a recent radio interview, Tre shared a pivotal point in his journey. Tre was in the sixth grade and living in a homeless shelter. A friend asked where he lived as they were walking from school.

Tre pointed at the shelter because he knew that his friend, from the outside at least, would just see a huge house, not a shelter. He knew in that moment that he had to give everything to his schoolwork because he didn’t want his children to ever feel like he did in that moment. 

Mighty Writers, a non-profit, accepted Tre into their after school program. He worked and excelled. Philadelphia’s Girard College then accepted Tre to their boarding school, which is specifically for gifted students from low-income and single-parent households.

Again, he worked and excelled. However, all the stress resulted in severe migraines that he had to fight through frequently. 

Eventually, it was time to send off his papers to colleges. He applied to Penn, who waitlisted him. He applied to Yale, who didn’t accept him. He was in Paris on a school trip when he opened his computer and saw a letter from Harvard.

Given the others had refused him, he was certain that Harvard would be another no. He opened the Harvard tab to find a message welcoming him to Harvard’s class of 2022. 

The best part of the story? Well, Tre didn’t just get into Harvard. He received a scholarship giving him a full ride. Today, it’s Harvard. Who knows what tomorrow holds for this bright young man. Tre has decided to major in computer science, and he hopes to create an intuitive virtual assistant ... or at least improve Siri. 

What did you think about Tre’s story of homeless to Harvard? Do you know someone who has worked to achieve the seemingly impossible? Tell us your thoughts and stories in the comment section, and don’t forget to pass Tre’s story along to inspire others.