A Volunteer ‘Cop’ Went from Being Homeless to Being a Student at Harvard

This month, we heard about a kid in New Jersey who was homeless, but got accepted to 17 different colleges.  Actually, 18 now.  He’ll be starting school later this year.  Now here’s another cool story . . .

There’s an 18-year-old girl from New York named Athena Capo-Battaglia.  And she didn’t have an easy childhood either.

She grew up with a single mom.  And about two years ago, they ended up at a homeless shelter in Queens after they couldn’t cover their rent anymore.  But instead of feeling defeated, she dug deep.

While she and her mom were homeless, she signed up to become an “auxiliary” cop with the NYPD.  That’s when you volunteer to assist with crime prevention, and patrol places like subway stations and street fairs.

She graduated from the program about a year ago . . . was class valedictorian . . . and got a $1,000 scholarship out of it.

And now she’s using that money to pay for part of her education . . . because she recently got into HARVARD.  (Yeah, she must have won a few other scholarships too.  Because $1,000 definitely won’t cover it.)

She’s now a full-time student . . . works part-time at a café near school . . . and she’s planning to study neuroscience.

(NY Daily News)