Going from garbage collection to studying in Harvard is no small deal and it didn’t come easy either.
24-year-old Rehan Staton has been accepted into Harvard Law School after working as a trash collector for three years to pay for his schooling.
It’s an accomplishment Rehan never imagined was possible. Staton had struggled to find security since he was 8 years old when his mother abandoned him, his brother and his father. Things got worse when Rehan’s father lost his job.
What makes this story incredible is the fact that despite facing great adversities throughout his entire life, Rehan never let it stand in the way of achieving his goal. Rehan used to wake up at 4 am for his garbage collecting job. He took on this job in the hope of supporting his family who were constantly struggling to make ends meet.
Rehan said that the situation got progressively worse. There were often times without food on the table and no electricity in the house and that was common throughout his childhood.
In spite of his education suffering as a result and even a teacher proposing him to get moved to a special education class, Rehan caught a break and was tutored to help his performance. He ended up finishing the year with an Honor Roll and he continued improving his educational stand.
Regrettably, Rehan suffered multiple shoulder injuries when he was in the 12th grade and put an end to all of his likelihoods of going pro after graduation. After applying to multiple colleges and receiving refusals from all of them, Rehan took a decision to take on trash collecting and that’s when his life started turning the tide.
So many of Rehan’s colleagues were surprised to see a bright young man working in garbage collection and started urging him to go to school or do something that could allow him to live out his full potential.
His colleagues reached out to the son of the company’s owner who then acquaints Rehan to a professor at Bowie State University. The professor was so overwhelmed with Rehan that he pleased to the university’s admissions council and Rehan was soon admitted.
Rehan explained that all of the people in his life, whom he was supposed to look up to, were always putting him down and making him feel bad about himself. On the other hand, when he went down to garbage collection where all of the formerly imprisoned sanitation workers are, this was when he was actually inspired.
With enormous support from his brother, father, and friends, two years of successful studies at Bowie State just flew by and Rehan relocated to the University of Maryland where he graduated. After this, he landed a political consulting job at Robert Bobb Group and continued to study for his LSAT.
Rehan again sent out a number of applications to colleges and universities including Harvard. Much to his surprise, Rehan got accepted into Harvard and this was just one of several schools that finally accepted him.
News of this story went viral on the social media. Many congratulated Rehan and said that he is a proof that hard work and determination does pay off and that they believe he will go on to do many great things in life.
After that, Rehan wrote an inspirational open letter to his brother who was one of the few people providing immense support. His brother dropped out of college to return to work and to guarantee stable family income.
Now, there is also a crowed funding movement that goal to gather some monetary support for Rehan’s studies at Harvard.
Ponder supporting Rehan and leave a mention telling us what you thought about Rehan and his story of determination and hard work.
