One trash person is a treasure of this student.

A 24-year-old Maryland man has been accepted to Harvard Law School after working as a scavenger for three years to pay for his education.

“I have to go ‘down’ the social hierarchy – that is, sanitation workers who were previously imprisoned – to be appointed,” Rehan Staton said CNN.

This is an achievement that was never imagined by Staton.

Staton has struggled to find security since he was 8 years old, when his mother left him, his brother and father. Things get worse when Staton’s father loses his job, and must take three other people at once to pay the bills.

“Often there is no food on the table and there is no electricity in the house,” Staton said Washington Post. “That was normal throughout my childhood.”

“No one can promise that life will be fair – but if you keep paying attention to gifts, everything will fall into place.”

School is no better than home. His grades are not strong, and the teachers give up on him, even calling him “flawed,” he said. When it was suggested that he be placed in a remedial class, Staton’s father found him a tutor at the community center.

“I finally got the honor roll for the rest of the year,” Staton said. “The same teacher who suggested I was placed in special education actually wrote a letter of apology to my father.”

Statons turn to athletics to defend them, and their values, in form. Through high school, he hopes to be able to become a professional boxer after graduation – until a severe injury to his shoulder forced him to put his gloves on forever. “I can’t go to the doctor, because we don’t have health insurance,” Staton said. “I’m broken.”

With a low SAT score, he was rejected from every college where he applied. That’s when Staton got a job at Bates Trucking & Trash Removal. His new colleagues gave him the support he needed. “This is the first time in my life that people have appointed me to raise me up and not because I am good at sports,” he told CNN.

The company’s owner’s son introduced Staton to a professor at Bowie State University. Impressed by the young sanitation worker, the professor helped Staton plead with the school admissions board. It worked: He started undergraduate classes later that year.

“I got a GPA of 4.0, I have a supportive community and I am the president of the organization,” Staton said. Staton’s brother, Reggie, was also registered at Bowie State at the time but decided to go out and work in the same garbage company to support his brother.

After two years, Staton was transferred to the University of Maryland. His father suffered a stroke, so the prospective law student continued to do sanitation work to pay for medical bills. Starting at 4 in the morning, he will transport the garbage to the truck before class. Sometimes there isn’t enough time for Staton to take a shower after work, and he will sit behind the class to hide.

In December 2018, Staton graduated and was asked to be the speaker for the start of his class. He threw away the neon vest for a suit, took a job at Robert Bobb Group, a consulting company. He took LSAT while working full time.

In March, admission papers: In addition to Harvard Law, Staton was offered admission to Columbia University, Southern California University, Pennsylvania University and Pepperdine University.

Staton will begin online classes at Harvard this fall. He will specialize in sports law and hopes to become an agent. A GoFundMe to cover his school fees have been set, and on Thursday morning, it had collected nearly $ 74,000.

“Nobody can promise that life will be fair – but if you keep paying attention to gifts, everything will fall into place,” Staton said.