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Reading: 24-Year-Old Student Who Worked as a Garbage Collector to Pay For College Fee Admitted to Harvard Law School
Reading: 24-Year-Old Student Who Worked as a Garbage Collector to Pay For College Fee Admitted to Harvard Law School

24-Year-Old Student Who Worked as a Garbage Collector to Pay For College Fee Admitted to Harvard Law School

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Festus Conteh
By Festus Conteh 155 Views 3 Min Read
3 Min Read
24-Year-Old Student Who Worked as a Garbage Collector to Pay For College Fee Admitted to Harvard Law School
24-Year-Old Student Who Worked as a Garbage Collector to Pay For College Fee Admitted to Harvard Law School

24-Year-Old Bowie MD-Rehan Staton man from Maryland who work as a garbage collector to support his education has recently graduated from college with a pleasing grades that has now secured admission for him at Harvard Law School.

Despite all the hardship, constrains of keeping up with such job, he still make a step further in an excellent fashion. The 24-Year-Old almost quit studying after facing so many problems including job related issues, financial issues, illness and a major injury that slowed the pace of his spirit.

He used to live in a stable household until his mother left his father and moved out of the country when he was 8-years old. Since then, his father had been struggling to raise him and his brother alone.
Because of that, Rehan’s studies have been negatively affected as well. By the 7th grade, his teacher even recommended he be put in remedial classes. But his father refused and found an aerospace engineer who offered to tutor him for free.

Rehan’s studies improved since then, he even got on the Honor Roll. He also began training in martial arts and boxing. But his dream of becoming a professional boxer was cut short when he suffered a double shoulder injury in the 12th grade.

Rehan still tried to apply to college but was rejected by each of the schools. That’s when he decided to work as a garbage man.

His co-workers at Bates Trucking & Trash Removal, who were mostly formerly incarcerated, saw his potential and endorsed him to Brent Bates, the son of the company’s owner. Bates then helped him enter Bowie State University, where he became successful academically.

“Throughout my entire life… all the people in my life who I was supposed to look up to were the ones who always downplayed me and made me feel bad about myself,” he told CNN. “I had to go to the ‘bottom’ of the social hierarchy — that’s to say formerly incarcerated sanitation workers — in order to be uplifted.”

After two years in Bowie State, he transferred to the University of Maryland, where he graduated in 2018. He then worked in political consulting with the Robert Bobb Group while studying for the LSAT.

Now, Rehan has been accepted in several prestigious law schools, including Harvard Law School, where he will soon begin online classes.

Even though a grant from Harvard will pay most of his tuition, he still needed help with his other educational and personal expenses. In line with that, a GoFundMe campaign has been set up by his mentor and it has so far raised over $60,000.

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Festus Conteh is an international youth that functions conveniently in all forms of writing including article writing, news, script, content writing, constitution and project/proposal writing. Writing is fun to Festus and has brought fame and recognition in his clime. In 2019, he was awarded best upcoming writer in an online writing completion that was organized by the Association of Sierra Leonean Authors (ASLA). After his impactful contribution to national development and cohesion through writing, he was nominated for the African Genius Award for the Best Writer in Africa Award Category an award he lost to one of the greatest African Writers - Chinua Achebe. In 2022, Festus was one of the applicants to the Commonwealth Youth Council (CYC) as Vice Chairperson (Policy and Advocacy) a process that met imperil feedback. As a freelancer, Festus has written articles for magazines, newspapers, and media houses and his articles have attracted big media houses including BBC, Aljazeera and Legit. Ng and is the Head of Programs at Salone Messenger a public relations firm based in Sierra Leone with the latest news and information. He is the founder of Africa’s Wakanda a platform that spotlight the beauty of Africa. Festus is also a perpetual volunteer in life-changing causes and has shown great commitment and dedication to being a catalyst and solution to the challenges faced by young people like himself. Festus currently serves as the Secretary General of the Africa Youth Leaders movement which is a network of youth between the ages of 20 – 30 years who have shown achievement, leadership potential and commitment to make a difference. Festus is also the Africa Focal Point of Youth for Change Initiative, which is a platform through which young people can access resources, be empowered and given the opportunity to grow to become useful members of society who will participate in the development of their communities and nation. Along with another Africa Youth platform, Festus has Co-Founded the Future of Africa initiative which is an advocate forum with the aim to bring together local and international socio-economic stakeholders to support innovative programs aimed at advancing the radical and practical progress of adoption awareness-vulnerable children and youth and youth leadership-through interlinking local, regional and international resources and opportunities.