1) Joseph Marinia is a homeless teen from Connecticut who has overcome adversity to gain early admission to the University of New Haven as a full-time student through a scholarship program. 2) Despite facing homelessness throughout high school and living in a transitional housing complex, Joseph maintained high honors and worked multiple jobs to support his family. 3) Joseph hopes to eventually attend the University of Connecticut to become a pharmacist, serving as an inspiration to others facing challenges that education can be a pathway out of poverty.

1. Joseph Marinia, Homeless Teen In Connecticut, Finds His
Way To College
This piece comes to us courtesy of New Haven Independent.
Right after finishing his final class at Hillhouse Substantial College, Joseph Marini navigated the O
bus, university admissions office, on line course routine "Matrix," and the shelves of the campus
bookstore.
His discovered his way, just as he identified his way from a homeless shelter to the large school
honor roll--and to early admission as a total-time university student.
Joseph, who has been homeless throughout high college, is one of 15 New Haven public college
seniors embarking this month on a new chapter as complete-time college students at the University
of New Haven (UNH) although a scholarship program.
Joseph shared the tale of his remarkable journey the other day as he created final preparations on
the eve of his initially day of classes.
It is the tale of a resilient child who worked really hard and developed relationships to generate
options for himself that his mother and father never had. His story embodies what goes by the
phrase "grit"--steadfast dedication to a intention that, emerging investigate shows, can be far more
important than sheer brainpower in assisting children lift out of poverty and succeed in college and
lifestyle.
Joseph, who's 18, invested his morning taking ultimate exams at Hillhouse, in which he's on the
honor roll. He hitched a trip on a college bus, then walked via the under-freezing air to the
downtown Subway sandwich shop to pick up his paycheck. He subsequently walked to the New
Haven Green to the Temple Street bus end.
It was a acquainted routine. For the past two years, he has gone straight from substantial school to
one particular of two destinations: to get the job done or to school. This previous semester, Joseph
took 4 courses at Hillhouse, and a single class at UNH even though working quite a few 7-hour shifts
at Subway, until 10:30 p.m. on some school nights.
Joseph is the sole breadwinner in his family at the second. His dad is on disability his mom is at this
time unemployed. His $200-a-week paychecks support shell out the expenses at his family's
makeshift home, a transitional housing complex on Winchester Avenue. His family members landed
there immediately after living in a homeless shelter on Davenport Avenue for the duration of his
freshman and sophomore years. His current apartment is not permanent: The family has permission
to remain there only right up until March.
Joseph, a disarmingly warm, fast-talking teen brimming with ambition, tries not to focus on the
instability of his housing.
"Me currently being in a shelter, I never let that cease me," he stated.
Joseph kept his housing condition a secret during most of large college. He didn't want "sympathy
votes" or to be judged for exactly where he lives, he stated.

2. More than the past yr, he has started out to tell his peers.
"I want to break that stereotype that homeless individuals are nobodies," he mentioned.
KNOCK, KNOCK
En route to UNH the other day, he hopped on the O bus, which heads out towards the Milford mall.
When the bus went up the very first steep hill in West Haven, Joseph pulled the cord to request the
prevent. He received out at the entrance to the university.
He presently knew the best way across the busy road: First cross a side street, then double back on
the zebra-striped path that runs kitty-corner to the front entrance.
Joseph got to know that that zig-zag path as he commuted to campus last semester by way of a
"University Ahead of University" program, which paid for him to take a communications class.
This time, Joseph was stepping onto campus as a total-time student. He was accepted to UNH's
Excellent Higher College Senior Program, which lets substantial-performing seniors to enroll at
UNH for free in the course of the spring semester of higher school.
On Wednesday, he steered towards the office of admissions counselor Monique Bolt to resolve a
scheduling problem.
On the the eve of the to start with day of classes, he had already secured spots in English
composition, intermediate algebra and Western historical past. But he received wait-listed for
sociology.
In Bolt's office, he apologized for "bombarding" her with emails proposing possible strategies to
come across a fourth class to fill out his schedule. He informed her he desired to discover a
sociology class. Although his peers had been hunting forward to their final semester of substantial
school, he was thinking many steps ahead. His long-phrase purpose is to be a pharmacist. He aims to
get a PhD. To achieve that, he hopes to enroll at the University of Connecticut in the fall. Sociology
is a prerequisite for the pharmacology major, so he needs to get it out of the way.
Joseph crossed his fingers as Bolt created a cell phone get in touch with to consider to get him into
Sociology 113, section 50.
She hung up with a smile on her encounter. "You are all set."
He pumped his fist.
"You are a superior egg," Bolt advised him. She informed him to get in touch with her cell mobile
phone anytime he desires assist. And she signed him up for the first of a series of mandatory
meetings with a help center for 1st-yr college students people are element of the scholarship
program's efforts to make certain substantial-schoolers never fall through the cracks.
"I know you are going to be successful," she said.
She said Joseph "stood out" out of the 36 college students who utilized for Exceptional Higher School
Senior scholarships. "His interview was really touching. He even teared up," she recalled.

3. She said he showed private charm and humility as he told his daily life story.
SETBACKS
Joseph grew up in Bridgeport, the middle child of 5. He was raised by his stepdad, who's from Puerto
Rico, and his mom, who's from Italy. He commenced doing work at age 11 in his grandmother's
store, Luigi's Italian Bakery. Following a dispute concerning mom and grandma, his grandmother
kicked the family members out of her property.
In the middle of 8th grade, his loved ones moved to Puerto Rico for seven months. When the family
came back, he explained, they were homeless. They observed a spot in a shelter run by Christian
Local community Action on Davenport Avenue in New Haven's Hill community.
It was a couple of months into the college year. The transition to substantial college was tough, he
recalled.
"They threw me into Hillhouse," mid-way by way of freshman year, he recalled. Despite his late
transfer and living scenario, Joseph landed on the honor roll freshman 12 months. He discovered a
"family" on a citywide tennis team. His sophomore year started off out well, when he was named Mr.
Sophomore and donned an honorary sash.
Then suffered what he termed a "setback."
"I was jumped" by three youngsters as he was heading house from Hillhouse one evening, just a
block from the college. The young children punched him 3 times.
"They tried to rob me, but I had practically nothing to take," Joseph recalled. He explained the
incident "shattered me."
Joseph bounced back. He stayed on the honor roll. Junior yr, he faced a further hurdle when he
acquired a MRSA infection in his knee. He missed a month and a half of college for surgical
treatment. He leaned on connections he had created with grownups at Hillhouse to pull him via. One
particular adult, school librarian Mary McMullen, dropped his homework by his house.
That year, regardless of missing weeks of school, he managed to make National Honors Society and
Nationwide Spanish Honors Society.
"Life has its ups and downs," he reasoned. "I don't want to let my setbacks end me from currently
being who I am."
Regardless of the uncertainty of his housing circumstance, he has often stuck with each other with
his mother and father and two younger siblings. Challenging instances have assisted them expand
near. Although neither of his mothers and fathers went to school, they raised him with the
expectation that he would. He ran with it, taking a class at Southern Connecticut State University
his junior 12 months. He said he felt "intimidated" at 1st between the older students. When he
acquired there, he could not discover his classroom lecture hall. But he did not want to ask any
students. So he hung close to until finally he located an grownup to ask and discovered his way to
the basement.
Once he identified his way, he thrived.

4. "University is incredible," he explained. "The atmosphere, the attitude, the maturity."
From all that he is been by, Joseph has grown up rapidly, he said. "People imagine I am 21." The
university environment felt like a great match. He ended up obtaining an A in his initial program,
college wellbeing. He explained he has not relied on a single adult mentor to help him along.
"I just did this on my personal," he mentioned.
In his interview at UNH, Bolt asked him to identify his preferred guide.
"Have you witnessed Homeless to Harvard?" he asked, referring to the Emmy-nominated film about
the daughter of drug-addicted mother and father who makes it to the Ivy League. The film is based
mostly on a true story recounted in a book, Breaking Evening.
Which is me, Joseph mentioned. His story, he mentioned, will be "Homeless to UConn."
THE MATRIX
In the absence of older siblings or quick function designs who went to university, Joseph relied on a
knack for connecting with folks to assist him navigate an unfamiliar world.
Soon after leaving Bolt's workplace, he headed to the campus library to print out his program
schedule. He sat down and typed his display identify into the on the web course details method
named the Matrix--1 of the many tiny logistical hurdles that can seem to be daunting to incoming
students.
Joseph moved deftly by the method to examine out his new sociology course. He said he learned to
use the laptop or computer process from a coworker at Subway, a graduate student at UNH. These
Subway coworkers, several of whom attended UNH, have proved valuable above the past two years,
he mentioned. He has spent so a great deal time at the sandwich shop that the crew has develop into
like "a loved ones," with Joseph as its youngest member.
He pulled up his routine and commanded the pc to print. He knew the place the printer was, he said,
not by asking--he is shy, at instances--but by observing other college students.
"When I am in a new area, I observe folks," he said.
BARGAIN Shopping
Immediately after printing off his schedule, Joseph announced the subsequent location in the pre-
university obstacle program: the campus bookstore.
"Let's do some shopping," he cheerfully declared.
He walked back across campus at a brisk pace that he keeps up for most of his day by day existence.
He is constantly on the go He performs and research so a great deal that he seldom spends time at
home. He as soon as went two weeks devoid of seeing his dad mainly because his dad is typically
asleep when he gets residence from work. When he doesn't have to perform, attend class or do
homework, he mentioned, he feels restless.
Joseph stated he didn't have to have to purchase his books just before class starts--it's much better

5. to wait right up until the professor confirms the obtain is required. But he wanted to verify out the
prices. Working with the program numbers on his routine, he searched the shelves for his English
composition course. He observed only four employed copies of the main text, Writing Arguments.
Used copies had been $47.70 each and every, a key markdown from the new volumes.
He snatched a single off the shelf to guarantee he acquired the deal.
For other courses, he copied down the charges, which he planned to evaluate on utilized book web-
sites like Chegg.com.
"It is like bargain shopping," he explained.
At the register, he pulled out a bank card to pay for the guide. This semester, he took advantage of
the biggest bargain rate--renting the book. He could not do that final semester, he explained, simply
because he didn't have a bank account. So he went downtown and opened 1. He did not inquire for
aid.
"I like to do matters on my own," he explained.
Continue to keep MOVING
When it came time to head back downtown, he headed downhill, by way of an academic making,
taking the shortcut to the bus cease. The B bus comes far more frequently than the O, which travels
all the way from the mall.
He took the B to Subway, in which he had to talk to his boss about altering his get the job done
routine to accommodate the new sociology program. His boss, owner Yon Byun, has come to be a
mom figure to him above the past two years. She had been holding the operate routine open until
eventually Joseph received his classes settled.
She welcomed him from behind the counter. She told a reporter she counts herself between the a lot
of adults who truly feel proud of Joseph's journey.
"He's amazing," she mentioned. "I have goosebumps."
Reached by phone, Joseph's principal, Kermit Carolina, mentioned Joseph has risen to a significant
challenge: "His loved ones is relying on him to be the savior, the individual who can adjust the
disorders in the household as a result of schooling.
"He understands the power of schooling. ... That schooling is the gateway out of poverty and any
challenge that's going on in your existence."
"I have the utmost respect for him since of his perseverance and his drive to do well in almost
everything he's completed," Carolina mentioned.
Even as he launches his 1st semester as a complete-time university pupil, Joseph faces another
hurdle: In March, he and his relatives have to leave their transitional housing complex. They have
not still figured out where they will move.
"I attempt not to assume about that," Joseph explained. "I test to retain moving on."

6. 'TOP DOG'
Joseph hasn't rather figured out how he'll spend for college. He is applying for a New Haven Promise
scholarship. Since he attended New Haven schools for only 4 many years, the plan will pay out up to
half of tuition at in-state colleges or universities. At UConn, his dream school, he'd still have to come
across a way to pay $seven,000 in tuition and costs as a commuter pupil plus a different $11,000 if
he would like to board.
"I'm trying to save up," he mentioned, but most of his Subway paychecks have been going to shell
out his family's expenses.
Meanwhile, he is focusing on receiving by means of the initial semester at UNH.
"I am just going to go in there with my thoughts set on finding an A," he said.
He said he tries to urge his peers, and the youthful youngsters at his supportive housing
complicated, to set their sights large as well.
"I'm just a uncomplicated nobody coming up in homelessness building a thing out of my daily life,"
he explained. "I am like that underdog and I am starting to be prime dog."
"If I inspire just one particular person--I will not care who it is, any age--to make a variation, my aim
is accomplished."