Clayton County, Georgia teen Chelesa Fearce was homeless for most of her high school career, living in shelters with her family of five and, at times, in her mother’s car. When it became too dark for her to see her homework, Chelesa would use the light of a cell phone to complete her work. Despite her far-from-ideal circumstances, Chelesa remained focused on her education and has now graduated as the valedictorian of her class at Charles Drew High School.
“I just told myself to keep working, because the future will not be like this anymore,” Chelesa told local news station WSBTV. “You’d be worried about your home life and then worried about school, worried about being a little hungry sometimes, go hungry sometimes. You just have to deal with it. You eat what you can, when you can.”
According to Chelesa’s mother, the family did have an apartment at one time, but it was short-lived and they soon “ended up back in another shelter because I got laid off from my job maybe about four or five times.”
Chelesa’s determination through a seemingly desperate situation lead to her achieving a 4.466 GPA and scoring a 1900 on her SATs. Those results were enough to make her the valedictorian of her high school class. For the last two years, Chelesa has been taking all college-level courses at her high school, and this fall she will enter Spelman College in Atlanta as a college junior.
During her graduation ceremony, Chelesa was praised by her older sister, Chelsea Shelton. “I’m the oldest, but she’s the smartest,” Chelsea said. “I couldn’t do anything without my sister.” That’s high praise indeed coming from Chelsea, who is graduating as salutatorian from George Washington Carver High School in Atlanta!
Check out Chelesa’s commencement speech below followed by another video report from WSBTV about her address:
“I was homeless,” Chelesa says in the speech. “My family slept on mats on the floor and we were lucky if we got more than one full meal a day. Getting a shower, food and clean clothes was an everyday struggle.”
There’s something to think about next time you don’t feel like doing your homework!
