Maryland student beats homelessness, cancer to graduate
theGRIO REPORT - After spending about six months in the hospital, Reggie Evans took honors courses, ended up with a GPA above 3.0...
ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY, Md. – Reggie Evans grew up homeless in Baltimore and was diagnosed with leukemia in ninth grade.
But he isn’t letting anything block his path now.
He’s a graduating senior at Anne Arundel County School.
“I wanted to just get through, and I just wanted to show people that chemotherapy and having cancer and stuff wasn’t going to stop me from trying to be successful,” he said.
After spending about six months in the hospital, Reggie took honors courses and advanced classes and ended up with a GPA above 3.0.
Reggie said having the support of family and friends kept him going.
Counselor Kristen Holzer told WBAL, “Just being able to see such a young adult go through all of these different hardships, it really puts your life into perspective too.”
Assistant Principal Marc Procaccini, said that students like Reggie are the reasons educators are into education. “There’s no other student like Reggie,” he said.
With all of the encouragement he received, Reggie admits that the journey hasn’t been easy.
“There have been times when I wanted to just say, ‘Just quit it’ and say ‘I didn’t want to go to school.’ Half of the times, I was pretty tired from all of the [chemotherapy],” he said. “I did want to quit sometimes, yeah, I did.”
In the fall, Reggie is heading to Loyola University and plans to major in communication with an emphasis in digital media.
