“There I was, surrounded by rich kids from California wearing Lululemon designer brands,” he recalls. “I don’t think they knew what to make of me.”

Eventually, he won over his peers with brainpower, tutoring hundreds of classmates for free in such complex subjects as organic chemistry, cellular neurophysiology and molecular and cellular biology of neurons.

Alan’s journey has given him a granular view of how people end up homeless and how it can affect them.

He says he took to the streets as a teenager to escape an abusive home life. He survived for three years by sleeping on the ground outside a library, showering in his high school gym, eating leftovers from the school cafeteria and washing his clothes under an outdoor spigot at a 7-Eleven store.

“I guess you could say being homeless made me a problem solver,” he says with a wry chuckle.

Humor became a coping mechanism when he was beaten up and bullied. At his worst, he battled thoughts of suicide.

“I’m not ashamed to say it: There were times I thought about ending my life,” he says, noting that depression is widespread among those on the streets.

Sometimes,the kindness of strangers kept him going.