When Cleveland native David Boone was 14-years-old his house was shot up by gang members. That’s when he first began sleeping on park benches and his life on the street. Eventually his school nurse and high school principal found out. The principal’s compassion for David’s situation led him and his family to open their own door and David lived with them for some time. Soon enough David found a permanent home with the family of a close friend from school, but David’s grades were still under par even though his passion for learning was stronger than ever. This soon began to change thanks to his STEM-focused high school and its project-based learning approach. In an recent story from Liz Dwyer of GOOD, David recalls how one book in particular helped him turn his circumstances around even more: “My principal had given me Ron Suskind’s book ‘A Hope In The Unseen‘ about Cedric Jennings’ journey from the inner city to the Ivy League. That story gave me the courage not only to apply to college, but also to aim for academically rigorous schools.” And after years of hard work David had everything he needed to begin applying to universities. With the help of a weekend mentoring program called Minds Matter, David began to send out his college applications. Then one day he opened his mailbox to discover a very thick envelope from Harvard University — which was significantly thicker than the average Harvard acceptee because it contained a full scholarship. To find out what happened next be sure to visit GOOD.
