A 24-year-old Maryland man who worked as a garbage collector to support himself during his undergraduate studies is now heading to Harvard Law School. Rehan Staton was close to the quiet school when multiple issues happened all at once including illness, a major injury, and financial issues. Growing up Rehan lived in a stable home until his mother left his father and moved out of the country when he was 8-years-old. Since that point, his father had been struggling to raise him and his brother by himself.
This change hurt Rehan’s studies and by the 7th grade, his teacher recommended he should be put in remedial courses. However, his father refused and found an aerospace engineer who offered to tutor him for no charge. Since that point, his grades improved and he started to train in martial arts and boxing where he developed a dream of becoming a professional boxer. But his boxing dream was ended once got a double shoulder injury during his senior year of high school.
Rehan applied to several colleges but was rejected by each school. This is when he decided to get a job as a garbage man. Some of his co-workers at Bates Trucking & Trash Removal noticed his potential and endorsed him to Brent Bates, the son of the company’s owner. Bates would help Rehan get into Bowie State University, where he became successful academically. Rehan was grateful for the support he got from his co-workers.
“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 attending Bowie State for two years, he transferred to the University of Maryland, where he graduated in 2018. Then he began working for Robert Bobb Group doing political consulting while studying for the LSAT.
Rehan has been accepted to several law schools including Harvard Law School, where he will start online classes soon. Although he received a grant from Harvard that pay most of his tuition, Rehan still needs additional financial help. There has been a GoFundMe setup by his mentor to help him raise the money.
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