From homeless to graduate
Wily Network helps student find his way
College is hard if you’re homeless — but a new organization in the city is trying to help, providing support and structure that students from traditional families can often get from their parents.
“When I was taking the gap year, I was also homeless. I was just kind of focusing on work and so it was just more of how was I going to — I don’t know — live on a daily basis,” said Eric James, 23-year-old Boston native.
James was the very first scholar, and now graduate, of The Wily Network, a Boston nonprofit that shepherds struggling youth through college by supporting them in nearly every way imaginable.
James spent six years in foster care before attending Suffolk University with his eyes on one day becoming a lawyer. His dreams were dashed when an outstanding bill of $4,000 kept him from returning after his freshman year.
“It looked like I was just going to be working low-end jobs and living on a day-today basis,” said James, who found himself living in an adult male shelter near South Bay House of Correction as a teenager in 2016.
That’s when he was connected with Judi Alperin King, executive director of Wily Network. James would soon become the first Wily Scholar.
The Wily Network offers financial support for things like clothes, books, transportation, a cell phone, dorm room set-up, transportation and a computer.
“You don’t want to go to college and feel less than,” said King, adding, “You’re immediately isolated on your campus and so you have to fight through that.”
The network also sticks with students through therapy appointments, meetings with the Department of Children and Families and helps them to lock down summer and winter housing, prepare for jobs and internships and coordinate fun weekend outings, dinners and lunches.
King said, “It’s a community of people who silently understand their story so no one has to say, ‘Were you in foster care? Were your parents incarcerated?”
King helped James get back on track and before long, he moved on campus at UMass Dartmouth to study criminal justice.
King is James’s Wily coach, a mentor that all the scholars get to help navigate college life along with other difficult moments during the year such as holidays and parents’ weekend.
This fall, the Wily Network will work with 63 scholars and operates mostly on referrals from schools or shelters. The average cost to support a student for a year is $12,500, funded mainly through private donations.
King watched in admiration as James soared through his academic career, starting an organization on campus, becoming president of the
Black Student Union, interning at three different courthouses and making the Dean’s List.
“It’s amazing to me to think about that first day we went on that campus … and he just took it in and hit the ground running and did everything right. It was amazing to watch,” said King.
Last month, James graduated from college with his sights set on owning his own law firm one day.
“I really have my degree. It’s just crazy. It hasn’t sunk in yet,” said James.
King said, “I’m so proud of what he did and his ability to turn it around, not just give up.”