DISD Success Story, From Homeless Shelter To UT Austin

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DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - From homeless shelter, to a top tier university: a DISD Senior dreaming of becoming a film maker, is already re-writing her life story.

"It's still overwhelming," says Kewona Jones, a student at the district's Communications magnet school at Lincoln High. "I just think about everything I've gone through my whole life and it's like: I'm going to college!"

Indeed. Still, Jones says that the framework of her story has often been shaped by struggle. "I'm the youngest of three, raised in a single parent home… had a bunch of hardships."

Even now, her Mom is out of work. And it's been worse. "When I was around 14, I lived in a shelter," says Jones, "that was probably the lowest point of my life…a lot of tears during that time."

But, those tears watered the seeds of big dreams… and so much more. While at the shelter, she was required to attend chapel.
"I started praying different, I started talking to God more and my life really turned around from that point. I had more faith."
Jones will graduate from the communications magnet next month, ranked 9th in her class.

"Kewona is steadfast…driven, focused, hungry,"says Louie White, PhD, a veteran instructor in the program. Jones says White and another teacher, Mr. Boone, have been her favorites, and mentors. "She said, 'am I ready for this?' I said, 'you're ready. You have outgrown this'. It was time."

Jones is headed to the University of Texas at Austin in the fall… having raked in $82,000 dollars in scholarships.

"Yeah," she says with a bright smile and an air of astonishment, "I'm going to college!" Not bad for the girl who once thought that college wasn't for her.

"Keep going, keep your head up… even though you can't see where you're going, doesn't mean you're not getting anywhere."

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