Once homeless and alone, man wins scholarship to Yale

Wellington Mackey arrived in New York at age 23 after emigrating from the Bahamas, but after struggling to pay his rent, he ended up on the streets.

Thirteen years later, he is going to Yale.

“You come to that point where you have to decide: are you going to run back home, or are you going to push forward?” he told The Journal News of his life on the streets. “I decided to push forward.”

Mackey worked hard to improve himself, spending his time in local bookstores, where he would read anything and everything he could get his hands on. A woman offered to give him a place to live if he would help with housework, and once he had an address, he was able to get a job and begin earning money in 2012, which allowed him to get his green card.

Listen to Wellington Mackey describe part of his journey below:

He also founded his own charity, Helping H.A.N.D.S., which he founded in order to raise awareness for hunger.

He eventually got married and had two children, but he continued to dream of a higher education.

When he finally got a scholarship to Westchester Community College, his teachers were impressed with him and encouraged him to apply to Yale.

Following his graduation from Westchester, he received the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship, which will allow him to attend the Ivy League school.

With such a success story, Mackey hopes that he can inspire others to find their way to success and out of hopelessness as well. “There’s a big difference between homelessness and hopelessness,” he said.