A former sanitation employee from Bowie, Maryland is ready to graduate from Harvard Regulation College in Might, and he credit his time as a trash collector with uplifting him and setting him in direction of his aim of changing into a lawyer.
Rehan Staton’s path from sanitation employee to varsity graduate to Harvard Regulation pupil wasn’t a straight line.
His journey exhibits the ability of perseverance and neighborhood help.
Staton, 31, instructed CNN in 2020 that “life was fairly regular till I used to be eight years previous.” That 12 months, his mom moved nation, leaving his father to lift him and his brother, Reggie, on his personal. Their previously “solidly middle-class upbringing” was confronted with upheaval and monetary challenges. Staton’s household confronted meals insecurity whereas his father labored a number of jobs to maintain their family afloat.
By the point Staton entered seventh grade, his educational achievements started to endure. “I wasn’t consuming meals day-after-day and my dad was working on a regular basis. Generally there’d be no electrical energy at house,” he remembered.
In highschool, with the assistance of an educational tutor and a renewed give attention to athletics, Staton’s college life improved. He dreamed of changing into an expert boxer after commencement, however his dream was dashed after an unlucky shoulder damage.
Staton started work at Bates Trucking & Trash Removing the place his coworkers inspired him to use to varsity, which led him to Harvard Regulation College. Staton spent two years at Bowie State College, then transferred to the College of Maryland, graduating in 2018.
5 years later, Staton is about to graduate from Harvard Regulation College, and he’s decided to present again to different service employees like himself.
Staton notes that it was his time as a trash collector that allowed him to attend Harvard Regulation College.
“I needed to go to the ‘backside’ of the social hierarchy— that’s to say previously incarcerated sanitation employees— with the intention to be uplifted,” he said.
Together with different Harvard college students, Staton has fundraised over $70,000 for the varsity’s service staff.
Within the years since Staton’s story first went viral, he is performed extra than simply go to varsity, as explored in an April profile by The Washington Submit. It’s been Staton’s aim to honor those that work behind the scenes at Harvard, contributing to the campus working easily.
With monetary backing from his former employer, Bates Trucking & Trash Removing, Staton has raised cash and consciousness for service employees by his group, the Reciprocity Impact. In Staton’s personal phrases, the Reciprocity Impact was designed “to fight the disconnect between workers and college students” at Harvard Regulation College. Its function is “to create a extra holistic Harvard Regulation College neighborhood whose members reciprocally help each other.”
Talking about service work, Staton mentioned, “I bear in mind what it’s like working that sort of job.”
“After I see them, I see me,” he said of campus employees. “I’ve felt very secure, taken care of, and beloved, particularly due to the bonds that I’ve with my help workers. I view them as my equals. They’re simply my friends.”
As he prepares to graduate from Harvard Regulation College in only one month, Staton recounts the challenges that led him towards success.
“After I look again at my experiences, I wish to assume that I made one of the best of the worst state of affairs. Every tragedy I confronted compelled me out of my consolation zone, however I used to be lucky sufficient to have a help system to assist me thrive in these predicaments,” Staton defined.
His journey speaks volumes in regards to the energy of neighborhood help and giving again to those that elevate us up.
Alexandra Blogier is a author on YourTango’s information and leisure group. She covers movie star gossip, popular culture evaluation and all issues to do with the leisure business.
