Normandy High School senior Eboni Boykin looks for one of her teachers after school is dismissed for the day on Thursday, May 3, 2012, in St. Louis. (Photo by Johnny Andrews, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)

Eboni Boykin is a senior at Nomandy High School and she cannot wait to leave her St. Louis environment of abandoned homes and broken-down business store fronts. Boykin has spent most of her childhood in and out of homeless shelters and has attended more schools than she can keep track of. Everything that she has had to overcome has been her motivation since she was 13 to attend an Ivy League school. In the fall Boykin will be attending Columbia University on a full scholarship. St. Louis Today has the story:

To get to Normandy High School, Eboni Boykin passes a blighted landscape she can’t wait to leave — streets filled with abandoned homes, litter-strewn lots and shuttered businesses.

She’s spent much of her childhood in and out of homeless shelters. She’s attended more schools than she can easily keep track of — most of them struggling urban schools where disruptions and low expectations are the norm.

But visions of the Ivy League have motivated this high school senior since she was 13, when she became captivated by a character’s similar quest on the television drama “Gilmore Girls.” This fall, she’ll fulfill her goal by heading to Columbia University on a full scholarship.

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