From Homeless to Harvard: Bronx Student Wins Big Scholarship

By: Tom Llamas, NBC
NBC

Some high school students learn about hardship by reading Charles Dickens or other great authors, but Bronx resident Karina Melendez lived it.

When she sits among her friends she looks no different than the rest of them. But Karina has survived more in her 17 years than many have in a lifetime.

At the age of 10 she was diagnosed with bone cancer.

"I had to go through chemotherapy I lost my hair I couldn't walk I was in a wheelchair,” says Melendez.  “It was basically me fighting for my life at such a young age."

She beat the disease and the wheelchair that came with it-but life didn't get much easier.

"My mother and I lost our apartment our only home we force to live in a shelter."

Karina, who was a sophomore at the Bronx High School for Law and Finance, ended up losing more than just a place to stay.

"I was in a shelter with my mom and it got to a point where it wasn't safe me living with my mother anymore and I had to be removed from her care."

Despite the traumas, Karina stayed at the top of her class.

"She has one of the most amazing drives I've seen,” says her teacher Scott Pullman. ”She always talks about how she needs to improve herself"

A combination of that drive, hard work, and resilience finally paid off.  For the first time in her life Karina doesn't have to worry.

"I was awarded the Annenberg Scholarship which is a full scholarship to any university of my choice."

It’s a national award given to only five students across the country. Karina says the scholarship is more than an opportunity it's also an answer to her biggest question in life.

"What you haven't given up the reason why you haven't given up this is it."

Karina top choices for college are Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and Barnard in New York City.  She hopes to one day be a lawyer, which makes sense since she's definitely a fighter.

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local-beat/From-Homeless-to-Harvard-97542789.html