Rehan Staton, a hard-working college student from Maryland, landed a spot at one of the most prestigious law schools in the country after collecting garbage to make ends meet.
For almost three long years, Rehan Staton would wake up early in the morning so he could report for work. He worked as a garbage man for Bates Trucking & Trash Removal in Bladensburg, Maryland. He would spend his entire morning in his neon uniform collecting trash and cleaning dumpsters.
After his long and tiring shift as a garbage collector, he would hurry up and attend his classes at the University of Maryland. According to Rehan, sometimes, he didn’t have enough time to take a shower and would rush to go to school so he wouldn’t miss his classes.
He would choose to sit at the far back of the classroom so his classmates wouldn’t notice him and judge him. It was very hard to juggle his studies and his work, but he didn’t want to stop learning.
From an early age, Staton said his father struggled to raise him and his older brother as a single parent.
Rehan wanted to achieve his dreams.
These financial difficulties often meant the family went without food or electricity, Staton recalled.
Despite this, Staton excelled in high school while also training to become a professional boxer. But his dreams were diverted when he experienced a double shoulder injury during his senior year, CNN reported. When he didn’t get into college, Staton signed up to become a sanitation worker — and the experience would be life-changing.
“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,” Staton told the outlet.
Soon, a higher-up at the company caught wind of Staton’s story and took him to meet a professor at Bowie State University. That professor eventually persuaded the university’s admissions board to allow Staton to enroll, and he started that year.
Staton later transferred to the University of Maryland and set his sights on going to law school. But during his studies, his father experienced a stroke, and Staton rejoined Bates Trucking & Trash Removal to support his family and continue his schooling.
“We all took losses and made sacrifices to take care of each other,” Staton told the Boston Globe.
Sadly, during the second semester, Rehan’s dad suffered a stroke.
Without any choice, he had to start working for the trash company again. But he decided that he would still go to school.
Rehan knew that this decision was going to be tough.
He had to provide for his family and maintain good grades. He knew he’ll have a hard time, but he made sure that he was able to do it.
After graduating in 2018, Staton took an analyst job at a consulting firm in Washington D.C. He eventually applied to law school, and was accepted to Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California and Pepperdine University. (Georgetown University; New York University; the University of California, Berkeley; and UCLA placed him on their waitlist.)
Rehan is so excited to become a lawyer, and when he does, he promises to represent ex-convicts and even death row inmates who had faced injustices in our law’s system.
He still remembers the people, mostly ex-cons, who pushed him to never give up and to reach for his dreams.
It’s still a long way for this law student, but with his mindset and hard work, Rehan will become one great lawyer.
Watch Rehan’s reactions to his applications here. Don’t forget to share this with your friends and family!
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Source:people.com, ronproject.com
