From Homeless to Harvard: Dawn Loggins

This is a retelling, in our own words, of the story CNN's Wayne Drash reported in June 2012.

Every morning before sunrise at Burns High School in Lawndale, North Carolina, the janitor was already halfway down a hallway — sweeping classrooms, methodical, quizzing herself on the day's tests as she worked. Her name was Dawn Loggins. She was a straight-A senior. At the school she was cleaning.

Dawn had started the school year homeless, abandoned by drug-abusing parents. Her teachers and neighbors pitched in with clothes and medical care, and she got the janitorial job through a school workforce assistance program. She was grateful for the work — but it was what came after Burns that excited her. She had applied to four North Carolina colleges and one dream university.

Growing up without electricity

Dawn grew up in a ramshackle house with no electricity and no running water. She and her brother Shane — equally serious about school — would walk twenty minutes to a public park to fill water jugs at the bathroom spigots. She told a staff member at school that she couldn't do homework at night because she couldn't afford candles. Her supervisor, Junie Barrett, simply said, "OK, we'll get you some candles."

Barrett recalled the siblings asking to use the school's washing machine. "I said, 'Just leave them with me. We'll get them washed, dried.'" The school let them use the locker-room showers.

Burns was their fourth high school since middle school. They'd missed months of classwork arriving two years behind. Guidance counselor Robyn Putnam saw the potential early and enrolled them in online classes to catch up. It paid off.

Abandoned

The previous summer, Dawn earned a spot at the prestigious six-week Governor's School of North Carolina at Meredith College, reserved for the state's top students. Putnam drove her to Raleigh and took her shopping for clothes. Other teachers contributed money.

Putnam worried the home situation would worsen while Dawn was away — there was an eviction notice on the house. "We kept telling her to get everything she could; we knew this was a possibility."

When Dawn came home, her parents were gone. Her grandmother had been dropped at a homeless shelter, her brother had left, and her parents had moved to Tennessee. "I'm not mad at my parents," she said later. "My mom and my stepdad both think that they did what was best for me."

Stability in Lawndale

Dawn decided to stay in Lawndale, couch-surfing at friends' homes, rather than be turned over to the Department of Social Services or move again. She would turn 18 that semester. So the community and the Burns staff became her family: custodian Sheryl Kolton and her husband Norm took her in.

With a roof over her head, she focused on the future. She wasn't top of her class, but as Putnam put it, one of the lowest grades on her transcript was a 94 — "and that was for a class called Success 101, and the irony of that is just really amazing."

The letter

Dawn applied to UNC Chapel Hill, NC State, Davidson, and Warren Wilson — and, in December, to one reach-for-the-stars choice: Harvard. No one from Burns had ever been accepted.

Months passed. She was accepted to all four North Carolina schools. Then, on a sunny day, she found a regular-sized envelope from Harvard — the ominous shape every senior dreads.

"Dear Ms. Loggins, I'm delighted to report that the admissions committee has asked me to inform you that you will be admitted to the Harvard College class of 2016..."

Not only was she in — she got a full ride: tuition, room and board, plus help finding an on-campus job. The town rallied to raise money for her first trip to Cambridge in April, and Barrett traveled with her. The visit settled it: "I just could not picture myself anywhere else."

Helping others

When her story went public, well-wishers worldwide sent encouragement and donations. Dawn wanted the funds to start a nonprofit helping other homeless children — there were more than 200 students listed as homeless in Cleveland County. "I want them to be able to use my story as motivation."

She walked across the stage on June 7, 2012, to accept her diploma, looking for her brother Shane in the crowd. He would attend Berea College in Kentucky on a scholarship.

"If I had not had those experiences," she said, "I wouldn't be such a strong-willed or determined person." She might just find Harvard to be easy.

Based on reporting by CNN (June 7, 2012).