A determined 18-year-old homeless girl, Briana Watts has fought his way to clinch acceptance from 12 different universities in the United States despite facing the challenges of being homeless.
Briana and her mother lived in homeless shelters throughout her high school education at Bronxwood Preparatory Academy according to Yahoo Lifestyle.She and and her mother faced lot challenges in their lives, especially because the mother had struggled with addiction.
Briana’s mother, Bridgette Gibbs, shared that their life was going well until the girl was 8 years old after wich she lost her job and they had financial difficulties. She stated that the situation, combined with her struggle with depression, caused her to turn to drugs, creating more challenges for the family.
“Life was good until she was 8 years old. hat’s when Gibbs got laid off from her job. “I had to go home and tell my kids that was my last check. That, accompanied with the depression, I started using [drugs]. It kind of spiraled out of control,” Bridgette said.
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Howvever, Bridgette said she was determined to find a solutuin to theri problem even though she could not figure one but she prosied her children that she would fix their situation.
“I don’t even know how I’m going to fix this, but I’m going to fix this. I’m going to get clean, and that’s what I did I got back up. And it was not easy,” she said.
They also experienced another setback when Bridgette’s mother passed away, and she and her children were no longer allowed to keep their apartment and they had to move into a shelter.
Despite that, Brianna continued to attend high school at Bronxwood Preparatory Academy and pushed herself to do well. “None of my friends knew that we lived in a shelter,” Brianna said.
Nine months later, the family was able to move out of the shelter and into supportive housing through the non-profit organization, WIN (Women in Need). Bridgette said in order to get her life back on track for both herself and her children, she decided to go back to school.
“Getting my degree, it feels amazing, but you know what? For my kids to be having their degrees, it’s my world,” Bridgette said.
Brianna said her mother’s experiane about college appliation was very useful for her, she said WIN offered the family resources, such as counselors to help her with her college applications.
Brianna initially spent three years starting in 10th grade and continuing through her senior year, attending the Fresh Air Fund’s College Connections Program, a mentoring program that helps high school students choose, enroll in, and prepare for college.
She said the Fresh Air Fund also helped cover some of her college application costs in return for doing community service making all of her college application smooth. Briana said she applied to 12 universities, as well as three community colleges.
“I got into every one. I was really proud of myself. I didn’t expect it,” she said. “We kept opening up all these papers, all these letters, and all these booklets all over the house and she just kept getting them. I was so proud,” Brianna added.
Brianna recieved offer letters from top universities including Delaware State University, Virginia State University, the University of Albany, Alfred State College. Monroe College, Goldey-Beacom College.
She was aso accepted into SUNY Morrisville University, SUNY Plattsburgh University, Adelphi University, Hunter College, Lehman College and John Jay College. Briana said she plans would major Business for her undergraduate studies.
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