From homelessness to Harvard
Looking past stereotypes yields powerful change, write Marc and Craig Kielburger
Being kicked out of high school for the third time would probably mark the end of most young people’s hopes for a better life. For Toni Morgan, it was just the beginning.
Finally, she found someone who looked past the stereotypes and saw what Morgan could be, instead of telling her what she couldn’t achieve.
Once a homeless school dropout, 32- year- old Morgan recently began classes at one of America’s top Ivy- League institutions, Harvard. Her incredible story illustrates the harmful power of labels and assumptions.
Day after day, people looked at Morgan and saw, not an individual with potential, but another poor kid on a dead- end path.
“That’s the dangerous thing about labels. Someone creates a label and it informs how they treat others,” says the erudite Morgan, who inspired thousands of youth at Toronto We Day in early October.
Morgan was born to teen parents in Toronto’s low- income Jane- Finch neighbourhood, which has been called one of the most dangerous places in Canada to grow up. She doesn’t like to talk about her family life, but by the time she was 14, Morgan was living in shelters, taking whatever work she could find.
Every day was a fight for food and a roof over her head.
Not surprisingly, Morgan’s academics suffered. Those who should have stepped up to support her didn’t.
Despite her low grades, Morgan knew she was smart enough to handle advanced level classes. Teachers disagreed. “They said, ‘ Clearly you’re not doing well, you should take easier courses,’” Morgan recalls. “They thought they were doing me a favour. I tried to say, ‘ No I’m capable of doing better!’ But they wouldn’t listen.”
A vice- principal bluntly declared she had no hope of ever getting a university degree. A guidance counsellor looked at her Afro and condescendingly suggested she become a hairdresser.
When her absent days mounted, she was expelled. Unwilling to give up, Morgan registered at a different school, only to have the story repeat itself. By the third time she was kicked out at 17, the constant negative messages had stuck.
“I said, maybe they’re right, clearly I’m not cut out for this.”
In 2001, Morgan began volunteering for the Self Help Resource Centre, a Toronto organization that assists homeless youth. The Resource Centre’s director saw a spark in this driven young woman, and one day called Morgan into her office. Morgan was shocked when she said, “I’m going to give you $ 500 and support you to create a new youth program here.”
With mentorship, Morgan was managing a million- dollar community development project within four years.
The director believed in Morgan instead of putting her down. But she had to readjust how she thought of herself.
“One day, a lawyer for one of the community organizations I worked with told me I was so eloquent, I could be a lawyer, too. I laughed at him,” she says.
Eventually the positive reinforcement sunk in.
Six years after being kicked out of high school in 2000, Morgan dove back into her studies and got her diploma. She went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts at Ryerson University in Toronto in 2008.
This April, Morgan was accepted into Harvard’s masters of education program. She plans to become a teacher to help those, like her, who fall through the cracks of our school system. “It’s my responsibility to show everyone that my story is not unique. There are hundreds of young people like me.”
Some chose to see Morgan as a person with potential, instead of a label. And now our country will gain an educator who is going to have a powerful positive impact on the lives of so many others.
It’s worth remembering, how we think of and speak to others has the power to transform lives.
The next young person you encounter could be another Toni Morgan.