From Homeless to Harvard

Seventeen year-old high school student Kenneth Chancey is an honors student and star football player. He is student body president and one of the most popular people at school. He is also homeless.

Kenneth has just finished his junior year at Hollywood's Helen Bernstein High School, where he was named best overall academic student. He's the starting running back on the football team, cutting and dashing his way past his opponents. But when classes and practices end, he begins the difficult journey home with his 14-year-old sister, Stephanie. The journey takes over an hour. He lives at Skid Row with his father and sister, at the Union Rescue Mission, a homeless shelter. He walks down the littered streets of one of the roughest areas of Los Angeles. Drug deals are made around him. The stench of the place is overwhelming.

But Kenneth Chancey is on another journey too. He hopes to go from being homeless to becoming a Harvard grad. "I would love to be able to say that I graduated from Harvard University with a PhD in medicine and be able to share my story," he says. "I have to dream because obviously my reality is horrible."

Bad as it is, life for Kenneth is much better than when he was in sixth grade. Then he lived in a van with his mother and stepfather. His mom did drugs in front of him and, he says, his stepfather would hit him.

His father, Gordon Costello, says he's proud of his son for emerging as a leader, despite everything that's been thrown at him. It took a lot of getting used to a shelter. He and his sister hated it, but they somehow managed to adjust and decided to make the best of it.

Teachers say Kenneth has a dynamic personality that attracts students to him. They also say he's good in athletics, good in academics and he's good at getting people to get involved. He doesn't hold back. He showed students a PowerPoint presentation of his life and told them they should strive to do great things. He told them that if he can do it in his situation, then you can do it.

He's in the process of applying to Harvard. He hopes to eventually become a doctor. He knows he can't afford its $50,000-plus-a-year tuition, but he's not going to let that keep him from dreaming. "I know that I'm better than Skid Row. I know that I can accomplish something," he says.
If he has children one day, he says, he hopes it's a lesson to pass on to them. He says he would love to tell my children that he graduated from a top school and that if he can do it, they can do it.