#Student who collected garbage to pay for college admitted to Harvard Law

Rehan Staton with mentor Carmie McCook, who is leading a campaign to raise funds for his tuition.
Gofundme

A 24-year-old Maryland man has been accepted into Harvard Law School after working as a garbage collector for three years to pay for his education.

“I had to go to the ‘bottom’ of the social hierarchy — that’s to say formerly incarcerated sanitation workers — in order to be uplifted,” Rehan Staton told CNN.

It’s an accomplishment Staton 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 Staton’s father lost his job, and had to pick up three others at once to pay the bills.

“There were often times without food on the table and no electricity in the house,” Staton told the Washington Post. “That was common throughout my childhood.”

‘No one can promise that life will be fair — but if you keep your eyes on the prize, everything will fall into place.’

School wasn’t any better than home. His grades weren’t strong, and teachers gave up on him, going so far as to call him “handicapped,” he said. When it was suggested he be placed in remedial classes, Staton’s father found him a tutor at a community center.

“I ended up getting on the honor roll the rest of that year,” Staton said. “The same teacher who suggested I be placed in special education actually wrote my dad an apology note.”

Staton turned to athletics to keep him, and his grades, in shape. Through high school, he hoped to become a professional boxer after graduation — until a devastating injury to his shoulder forced him to put down his gloves for good. “I couldn’t go to the doctor, because we didn’t have health insurance,” Staton said. “I was crushed.”

With low SAT scores, he was rejected from every college he applied to. That’s when Staton got a job at Bates Trucking & Trash Removal. His new colleagues gave him the support he needed. “It was the first time in my life people were lifting me up for the sake of lifting me up and not because I was good at sports,” he told CNN.

The son of the company’s owner introduced Staton to a professor at Bowie State University. Impressed with the young sanitation worker, the professor helped Staton appeal to the school’s board of admissions. It worked: He started undergrad classes later that year.

“I got a 4.0 GPA, I had a supportive community and I became the president of organizations,” said Staton. Staton’s brother, Reggie, was also enrolled at Bowie State at the time but decided to drop out and work at the same trash company to support his brother.

After two years, Staton transferred to the University of Maryland. His father suffered a stroke, so the future law student continued to do sanitation work to pay the medical bills. Starting at 4 a.m., he would be hauling trash into a truck before class. Sometimes there wouldn’t be enough time for Staton to shower after work, and he would sit in the back of the classroom to hide.

In December 2018, Staton graduated and was asked to be his class’ commencement speaker. He ditched the neon vest for a suit, taking a job at the Robert Bobb Group, a consulting firm. He took the LSATs while working full time.

In March, the acceptance letters rolled in: In addition to Harvard Law, Staton was offered admission to Columbia University, University of Southern California, University of Pennsylvania and Pepperdine University.

Staton will start online classes at Harvard this fall. He’ll specialize in sports law and hopes to become an agent. A GoFundMe to cover his tuition has been set up, and as of Thursday morning, it had raised almost $74,000.

“No one can promise that life will be fair — but if you keep your eyes on the prize, everything will fall into place,” said Staton.