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Every school day for four years, Jermaine McClung, 19, rode public transit to
Dunbar High School on the South Side. Though his trip took up to an
hour and a half each direction, faculty say Jermaine was always one of
the last students to leave school in the afternoon. He stayed late to
finish his homework, work on extra credit assignments and talk to his
teachers.

"My junior and senior years that light bulb went on and I really
realized school is everything," Jermaine said. "I dedicated my whole
life to school. I was in school so much I thought I might as well just
live there."

But Jermaine, of course, couldn't live at school. Jermaine and his
mother, two older brothers and older sister had to move out of the
Robert Taylor Homes when he was 13. The family struggled to find
housing. Around the same time, the factory where Jermaine's
mother had worked moved to Mexico City, and she was able to find only
temporary work in a hospital. The family split up out of necessity,
doubling-up separately with relatives and friends.

After his family left public housing, Jermaine was only able to see his
mother and siblings every few months while he lived with his
grandmother, an aunt, a family
friend and a roommate. He estimates that he and his family had to
double-up with at least 20 different people in as many apartments while
he was in high school.

"From the age of 13 to the age I am now, I never stayed in one place a
whole year," Jermaine said. "Moving from place to place and dealing
with stuff in my life -- I didn't let it affect me."

This summer the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless honored Jermaine and
10 other Chicago teens who experienced homelessness with college
scholarships, all funded by private donors. A July 31 awards ceremony
featured Alex Kotlowitz, author of There Are No Children Here, as
keynote speaker.

"When I got the call about the scholarship, I was so excited
and happy I went around and told everybody I could think of," Jermaine
said. "They're all proud of me."

Jermaine will use his $2,000 scholarship to attend Parkland Community
College in downstate Champaign. He plans to begin classes next January,
after moving there this fall to qualify for in-district tuition.
Jermaine chose Parkland because he plans to transfer nearby, to the
University of Illinois, to earn a bachelor's degree in business or
electrical engineering. He wants to go on to earn a master's degree, or
even a Ph.D.

Since June, Jermaine has worked part-time as an usher for the Chicago
Cubs. At Parkland, he plans to try out for the track team and hopes to
manage the basketball team.

Eventually Jermaine wants to own his own electrician business and get his family into a stable home.

"I want to do something positive," Jermaine said. "I want to become a black leader."

The CCH Law Project manages the scholarship program. It focuses its
casework on helping homeless children and teens like Jermaine access
public schools in Chicago and the suburbs. Public interest attorneys
work to ensure that schools readily enroll students who are homeless,
provide them with busing or CTA passes, and staff homeless liaisons
trained to help students get any school services they may need.

Jermaine is quick to credit his Dunbar teachers and a brother -- in
school on a baseball scholarship at Olive-Harvey College -- with
inspiring him to succeed in school. He even finds strength in his
experience with homelessness.

"Homelessness has focused me academically, forced me to become more
responsible, and made me turn to school as a refuge," Jermaine wrote in
his scholarship application. "Being homeless has taught me that nothing
in life comes easily, but it has also forced me to set high goals for
myself."

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