Please help me get to college
Greetings! My name is Michael Terrance Celestin. I am a Boston native and have been living in the heart of Dorchester all of my life. I had the opportunity to apply to top colleges and universities when leaving high school.Yet, as a senior at Jeremiah E. Burke High School, I was consistently told, “Howard doesn’t accept kids like us.”
During my senior year application process, I was accepted into 17 out of 18 colleges, with my dream school, Howard, being the only school I was not accepted to. This denial was heartbreaking; something so close was just out of my reach. As a result, I had a decision to make: (1) to go to one of my other 17 schools to further my education; or (2) to not give up on my dream school and find a way to make it into a top choice school.
In high school, I had maintained a 3.7 GPA while balancing athletics, student government, and helping my fellow peers who were struggling with academics. Meanwhile, I had a paid job where I worked with students aged 5-12 years old at the local middle and elementary schools. On the weekends, I also worked for a valet parking service to help my mom provide for our family.
Understanding that my determination and strong-willed mindset was not going to let me walk away from my dream, I applied to the Hyde School in Bath, ME for a postgraduate year. This gave me more time to mature as a young man and gave me another chance to reapply to Howard University and hope to get acceptance twice from Morehouse College. This year I am blessed to say that I have been admitted to Morehouse College.
My mom has always been the sole provider in our household and has sacrificed so much for me, that I could never repay her. Attending Howard University is not only for me but also for my mom. It is my hope that one day I will be able to give back to my mom and provide for her the way she has provided for me for my whole life.
If you can help support my future in any small or big way, I'll be able to be a role model for young black kings from my low income neighborhood. I'll be able to show it's possible to be much more than a kid with shattered dreams.
