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Youth went from homeless shelter to the top spot in his high school class
By NICOLE NORFLEET
Philadelphia Daily News
norflen@phillynews.com 215-854-5444
Jul 24, 2008
IN HIS high-school yearbook, the only photo of 18-year-old Nicholas Shanks is a shot of his senior class in which he stares sternly from the back row. Nicholas wasn't in social or academic clubs, didn't play on a sports team or go to a prom.
But teachers and students at Martin Luther King High School won't soon forget the face of this young man, who, on his bunk in a crowded room in a homeless shelter, studied after school, drew anime, and eventually became class valedictorian.
"There were obstacles that I have had to overcome in my life so far," he wrote in a college essay. "However, my inspiration and personal strengths have helped me deal with them."
Nicholas, an avid artist, completed college-level courses at MLK High, on Stenton Avenue. He graduated with the top GPA in the class of 2008 - a 3.91 - has been accepted to the Art Institute of Philadelphia, and plans to start this fall. He still hasn't figured out how to pay the annual tuition of at least $25,000 a year.
"Just because you are in a bad situation," he told the Daily News in a recent interview, "doesn't mean you can't succeed."
The path to homelessness
When Nicholas was a child, he lived with both parents in a small apartment on Bustleton Avenue near Gifford, but it was far from a happy home. His parents were out of work and argued a lot, Nicholas said. They were drug addicts, his mother, Sheila Newton, later admitted to the Daily News.
"Nicholas was sheltered," Newton, 48, said. "We would be out here doing drugs and he would be in his bedroom. We would cover the cracks under the door."
One morning when Nicholas was still in middle school, he woke up to loud pounds on the front door. They had been evicted, Newton said.
Nicholas' father went to live with his own mother. And Newton and Nicholas went to stay at her mother's one-bedroom apartment in the Northeast. It didn't last.
His grandmother suffered from emphysema and was unable to work. His mom was still jobless and said she also was battling a cocaine addiction. An uncle of Nicholas' had been helping the pay the bills but could not longer afford to do so.
A month before he started high school, Nicholas, his mother and his grandmother were evicted - again.
"I expected it," Nicholas said softly. "Things just started falling apart."
At age 14, Nicholas had to leave his friends, most possessions and set out for the unknown.
With what little they could carry, the family took refuge at Mount Airy Stenton Family Manor, a homeless shelter in Germantown. They were assigned a section of the shelter's communal room shared by several families.
"It was terrible," Newton recalled. "He went through depression. I went through depression. My mom went through depression."
The food was miserable. Fights broke out among residents and there was no privacy, Newton said.
She had to tell some women not to change in the open where everyone could see. She said their clothes were stolen from the laundry.
Every weekday, Nicholas walked a block and a half to Martin Luther King High. After school, he returned to the shelter and studied in the communal room.
To pass time, Nicholas drew Japanese anime figures, visited other teens' bunks and played video games. Sometimes he visited his father.
Shelter workers helped Newton get a job.
But life didn't get easier. Newton's mother suffered a stroke and had to be moved to another shelter to relieve stress.
And in 2005, Newton found a lump in her breast, was diagnosed with breast cancer and had to undergo radiation treatments.
MLK was his escape
Nicholas and his mother stayed at the shelter for two years and eventually were moved to a private room. It was there that she decided to kick her drug habit for her family and received support from shelter workers, Newton said.
Then she and Nicholas found a new place to stay. They moved to secured transitional housing at a "visitation home" on Kensington Avenue near Lehigh. Visitors must sign in and no male overnight guests are allowed.
Nicholas was in 11th grade.
The two-bedroom apartment was "way better" than the shelter, said Nicholas, a shy, soft-spoken, slender teen who is humble about his obvious accomplishments. But it still had "shelter-like conditions," he said, with curfews at midnight and inspections.
Martin Luther King High was an escape for him, his teachers said.
Nicholas was quiet and introverted, said David Mandell, 43, an MLK teacher who mentored Nicholas during his senior year. But over time, Mandell, said, Nicholas started to verbalize his frustrations.
"He overcame his anger through his artwork," Mandell said. "I don't think Nick would have made if it wasn't for his artwork."
Nicholas wouldn't let his life of homelessness deter him, said Mandell, who administered his advanced calculus test.
"When I proctored that exam, everyone gave up . . . " he said. "Nicholas was the only student in that room who actually persevered."
Amanda Fry, 23, Nicholas' advanced-physics teacher, said she considered him one of her best students. His optimism, she said, amazed her.
"Especially in AP [advanced-placement] physics, a lot of the kids complained all the time about how much work they had," she said. "Nick never complained. It was just amazing to me because in some ways I think he had it harder than a lot of the other kids in the classroom."
MLK High principal Kris Diviny remains impressed by Nicholas' achievements.
"To know what he had to overcome, from us who knew, it was really inspiring," she said.
Aiding homeless kids
Homeless children are a "hidden population," said Dorette Ligons-Ham, regional coordinator of the city school district's Homeless Children's Initiative. About 6,000 kids grades K-12 were homeless last year out of the 197,000 who attended public and charter schools in the district, Ligons-Ham said. The number could even be higher. Many people don't report being homeless, she said, because they believe they have to live on the streets to be so categorized.
Children who live in emergency shelters or transitional housing and even those who stay temporarily with friends or relatives are homeless and face disadvantages, Ligons-Ham said.
Homeless students tend to have higher rates of absenteeism, tardiness and discipline problems, said Deborah McMillan, assistant vice president of specialized health services for the Public Health Management Corporation.
To help homeless students, Ligons-Ham and McMillan created the Homeless Teen Education Project, which targets eighth- graders preparing to make the critical transition from middle school to high school, McMillan said.
Elaine Colbert, teen-education specialist for the project, a self-described "one-man show," said just this past school year, she worked with 81 kids, met with their teachers and parents, and checked on them at shelters.
"I have students who would not have graduated if I hadn't talked to their counselors," she said.
It's difficult sometimes to help homeless students because they don't want their schools to know their secret, she said.
Colbert met Nicholas when he was in 10th grade. She was so impressed with his artwork that she helped him create a portfolio.
This summer, Nicholas is attending the Traveler's Aid Society of Philadelphia's summer program, which helps homeless students stay productive when school is out.
Nicholas also works for the program, housed at the Kirkbride Center, at 49th Street near Arch in West Philadelphia, as a paid lab assistant.
"When teens get into trouble, the first thing that goes out the window is school," said Mel Monk, 48, program director.
When teens first become homeless, they stay out of school an average of three to six months, he said.
"One of the things with this group of kids is that education will be their key to success," Monk said.
"Nobody is going to drop an endowment in their laps.
" . . . He's an example to the other students."
Nicholas' diploma and yearbook sit on the windowsill above his bed. Only a few friends scrawled messages in his book.
"To Nick, you have to be the smartest boy I ever encountered," says one.
"Nick, stay smart and I hope you do good in life," says another.
Despite the praise, Nicholas doesn't view himself "a success story" until he fulfills more goals.
He hopes to graduate from college and to become a graphic designer for video games.
"When I was young, to just see the situation that my parents were in," Nicholas said to describe his drive and ambition, "I didn't want to be in that situation again."
He still doesn't know how he's going to get the money to attend the Art Institute.
He has a few small scholarships from high school to help toward his tuition, Colbert said, but not nearly enough to cover it.
He was offered a four-year scholarship to Shippensburg University, in Cumberland County, but he turned it down, to his mother's dismay.
Fry and Mandell said they encouraged him to apply to more schools, and Mandell helped him to apply for scholarships.
But, Nicholas admitted, he procrastinated in applying, and hasn't heard anything yet.
Nonetheless, he remains optimistic that it will work out.
His and his mother's housing contract expires Oct. 1, and with bad credit and little money, Newton is struggling to find low-income housing.
Somehow, they say it will work out.
"Whatever Nick puts his mind to, he is going to do it," Newton said.
"My relationship with Nick is wonderful now," Newton said.
"He knows me and I know him. Before, I didn't take the time to get to know him like I should have just because I was on the drugs."
Now they talk freely about their family problems and she can tell him how sorry she is, she said.
She calls him her "godsend."
And Nicholas says he has no shame or bitterness.
He summed up his philosophy best on June 17, when he addressed his class as valedictorian.
"Bad living conditions, society and harsh backgrounds may all sound like a set-up for failure, but good can come from it," he said.
"Sometimes the negative acts as motivation to break out of the mold and make something out of nothing." *
Copyright 2008
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