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Nissa Freeman is a freshman at Southern Illinois University, helped by a renewable, $2,000 scholarship from the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless. She is determined to earn a bachelor’s degree so that, like her mother, she can become a registered nurse.
“Despite difficulties, Nissa kept her head in her books,” said her proud mother, after the scholarship was awarded this summer.
Four years of college – four years in the same place. It hasn’t been that way for Nissa since she was 10 years old.
Nissa’s parents, Tamela and Eric Freeman, expected to raise their family in North Carolina. All was well until 2001, when Hurricane Floyd devastated the region. The Freeman home in Rocky Mount, N.C. was damaged, and in the storm’s aftermath, Nissa’s father was laid off.
The family, including Nissa’s younger twin sisters, moved to Chicago. The strapped family had to move in with a grandfather, 12 people sharing a 2-bedroom apartment. Nissa’s parents found new jobs, but it was a struggle to make ends meet.
“I had nothing I could call my own, not even clothes. I was getting older, but I never really had clothes that fit because we couldn’t afford it. Sometimes we didn’t even have money to get back and forth to school. My education was suffering, and so was my self-esteem,” Nissa recalled.
After several years of getting by, Nissa’s parents decided the family should return to Rocky Mount, where they had enjoyed the bonds of a small-town community. Things went well for a time. When Nissa won a local contest, the newspaper even ran her winning essay on the front page.
Then a man-made disaster hit. Burglars broke into the Freeman home, stealing or vandalizing everything of value. Even copper pipes were ripped from the walls. The home was uninhabitable and the Freemans could not afford the extensive repairs. A year after they’d left, they decided to return to Chicago for good.
Nissa stayed to finish her sophomore year of high school. She then rejoined her family, which had doubled-up with relatives as Nissa’s parents worked to get into a home of their own.
Back in Chicago, Nissa was admitted to UPLIFT, a small community high school within the Chicago Public Schools. Working with the school’s homeless liaison, Nissa started to do better in school. Despite commuting three hours a day to and from school, Nissa improved her grades and joined school activities. As a volunteer at a program for Alzheimer’s patients, Nissa realized that she would like to become a nurse – “my passion,” she calls it.
“Being homeless for those periods, off and on throughout my high school years, has only made me more determined never to be in that predicament again. It’s made me appreciate everything, and work hard for the things I want and need,” Nissa wrote in her scholarship essay.
Nissa’s parents realized their own dreams as well. Early this year, the Freemans bought a foreclosed house on the city’s South Side. After six months of repairs and repainting, the family was back in its own home, in time to throw a graduation party for Nissa.
“When we finally got on our feet, it was like the world was lifted from off my shoulders. I swear, people said I even walked differently,” Nissa said.
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