What most of her teachers and administrators didn't know was the reason
for her tardiness: Jackson was homeless. Her mother was in and out of prison.
She and her brother were living with her aunt and cousins. All seven of them
shared a single room in one of Chicago's homeless shelters, a long bus ride
from her school.
Even though Jackson was disciplined for being late, Jackson says she
didn't want to tell anyone at the school the reason why.
"I was embarrassed. I was 14, and I was homeless," Jackson
says. "I didn't want people to look at me like, oh, you know, she needs
charity."
But Jackson needed supplies for school, and her family didn't have the
money for them, so her aunt wrote notes for Jackson to bring to school
explaining the situation. She found out that it wasn't so bad to ask for help.
"I think the first teacher I gave the note to came to school with
this bag of things for me," Jackson says. "And I didn't know how to
accept it. But after that, she never treated me differently, and I think that's
one of the things I appreciated. I knew that I'm intelligent, you know. I have
a brain with thoughts that matter."
Today, Jackson is a junior at Roosevelt University, where she is
majoring in international studies with a minor in economics. Life hasn't
exactly gotten easier: In addition to school, Jackson works two jobs, at a
restaurant and a financial management company, and takes care of her brother
and her mother.
"I wanted to go to bed so bad, but I can't because I have to get
A's," Jackson says. "I have to do well in school. It's the only thing
that I have that can get me out.
"There's so many people who could, you know, be the next Bill
Gates and change the world. But because they're poor or they're living in
poverty, they're instantly written off because no one thinks they'll make it. I
just want to make it."
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