2013 Success Stories – Madelyn Stewart
AP Chemistry.
AP English Language.
AP English Literature.
AP European History.
AP Statistics.
I could go on and on, because that is just the tip of the coursework that our first Bootstraps award winner, Madelyn Stewart, has on her young resume.
A soon to be graduate of Martin Luther King, Jr. Madelyn says her key to success, is “managing things by myself as much as possible.” And when you get to know Madelyn, you’ll realize she’s had to do that more than any young adult should have to at the age of 18.
As Madelyn sat with our Bootstraps board just over a week ago, she said that she was what the school would classify as homeless. Currently living with an amazing teacher (thank you teachers!) after her mom, who struggles with alcoholism, chose a man that by biology has the title of father, but that is not a man anyone would ever consider a true father, Madelyn found herself without a home. But that of course has not stopped her from getting it done.
She works full time, plays violin in the Nashville Youth Repertory Orchestra, and oh did I mention Madelyn has a 3.5 GPA in all of those courses – placing her in the top 20% of her class.
But if you talked to Madelyn, or any of her teachers, you’d probably have no idea that this young woman, who her counselors describe as more mature and capable than adults twice her age, was having to deal with homelessness and Children Services and crimes too unspeakable for words.
No, you see Madelyn is just “prioritizing school and being determined to make her life better than it has been.”
