From Homeless to Harvard

I'm not sure what to make of this incredible story about Khadijah Williams, a homeless 18 year old girl who grew up on skid row and was raised by a single mother who had her at age 14. Williams overcame seemingly insurmountable odds (she has "attended" 12 schools in 12 years--and that's "attended" in the loosest sense of the word) to end up accepted at Harvard College in the Fall.

Obviously it's great and amazing.

But I'm worred about a couple things.

First, I'm worried about bootstrap-pulling ideologues who may point to Khadijah to prove their delusion that poor people are poor because they just don't work hard enough. Look at Khadijah--if you just try hard like her, you too can succeed.

That's poppycock. Khadijah is an incredible individual with exceptional talent and the good fortune to have counselors and teachers who supported and believed in her potential. Khadijah was also lucky in that her mother, however homeless and indigent, never smoked, drank or did drugs. Hopefully this exception will not be abused as the rule.

Second, I'm worried about Khadijah. Among all the cultural differences she will have to adjust to, there is a greater shock that she's in for--her pride. Khadijah has always been proud of the fact that she is, in her own words, in the 99th percentile. She has found esteem in her academic abilities and significance in her scores.

But what happens when she's surrounded by people just as smart, or smarter, than her? How will her ego survive being in the 50th percentile of the ivory tower? I hope that she will learn how to find worth, significance and esteem in something more abiding and less relative than achievement.

After all she's been through, I hope she does not go from the oppression of poverty to the oppression of a culture of overachievement. For that would truly be jumping out of the pot and into the fire.