It wasn't easy for Chelesa Fearce, a 17-year-old girl who spent most of her high school years in homeless shelters. But she managed to power through her circumstances and fight hard to have a better life than the one she already had, and graduated high school with a 4.466 GPA, making her valedictorian of Charles Drew High School in Georgia.
Fearce admitted she struggled, and sometimes she had to turn on her cellphone light to study when the lights in the shelter were turned off, but working hard and always keeping a positive attitude were responsible for her achievements.
"I just told myself to keep working, because the future will not be like this anymore," she said.
In her very heartfelt speech, she addressed her family situation. "My family slept on mats on the floor and we were lucky if we got more than one full meal a day. Getting a shower, food and clean clothes was an everyday struggle."
When interviewed by WSBTV, she said: "You're worried about your home life and then worried at school. Worry about being a little hungry sometimes, go hungry sometimes. You just have to deal with it. You eat what you can, when you can."
"Don't give up. Do what you have to do right now so that you can have the future that you want," Fearce added.
The family was also celebrating another success, Chelesa's sister Chelsea graduated from a different school as salutatorian.
The girls' mother, Reenita Shephard, told WSBTV that the family occasionally had an apartment, but when she was laid off from her job they ended up back in a shelter. She added that her daughter's achievements made her extremely happy and that she "read to them a lot" when they were growing up.
Chelesa will enroll at Spelman College for pre-med biology as a college junior because she took college classes as well as her high school credits and excelled at them.
Her sister will attend West Georgia University and hopes to major in criminal justice.
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