June 7, 2012 7:20 PM | CBS News
LAWNDALE, N.C. - It's high school graduation season, and one young woman who is getting her diploma
this evening is our choice for "most likely to succeed" -- because she already has, against some incredible odds.
At 6 this morning, long before her classmates were even awake, 18-year-old Dawn Loggins was already pushing a
mop through her high school in Lawndale, N.C. -- where she also works as a custodian.
Home -- for Dawn -- is complicated. For years she moved around, sometimes squatting with her drug dealer
stepfather and unemployed mother. But she always excelled at school. Then last summer Dawn returned from an
academic summer camp to find her parents had abandoned her.
They had moved to Tennessee. Dawn moved from couch to couch until a counselor asked Sheryl Kolton, a school
custodian, if she would take Dawn in. With a safe place to stay, Dawn flourished.
She was president of the photography club, the rock climbing club, the Spanish club. When it came time to apply to
college, a friend urged her to aim high. Now she's showing off a letter that reads, "You have been accepted to the
Harvard University class of 2016."
Dawn plans to pay for school with a mix of financial aid, local scholarships, and the money she saved from cleaning
classrooms.
<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/eA6x1E64x-4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
LAWNDALE, N.C. - It's high school graduation season, and one young woman who is getting her diploma
this evening is our choice for "most likely to succeed" -- because she already has, against some incredible odds.
At 6 this morning, long before her classmates were even awake, 18-year-old Dawn Loggins was already pushing a
mop through her high school in Lawndale, N.C. -- where she also works as a custodian.
Home -- for Dawn -- is complicated. For years she moved around, sometimes squatting with her drug dealer
stepfather and unemployed mother. But she always excelled at school. Then last summer Dawn returned from an
academic summer camp to find her parents had abandoned her.
They had moved to Tennessee. Dawn moved from couch to couch until a counselor asked Sheryl Kolton, a school
custodian, if she would take Dawn in. With a safe place to stay, Dawn flourished.
She was president of the photography club, the rock climbing club, the Spanish club. When it came time to apply to
college, a friend urged her to aim high. Now she's showing off a letter that reads, "You have been accepted to the
Harvard University class of 2016."
Dawn plans to pay for school with a mix of financial aid, local scholarships, and the money she saved from cleaning
classrooms.
<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/eA6x1E64x-4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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