ichola Shanks refused to fail
CORRECTION
Youth went from homeless shelter
t~ the top spot in his high school class
By NICOLE NORFLEET
norjlen@phillyne,us.com
215-854-#14
N HlS high-school yearbook,
I the only photo of 18-year-old
NicholasShanks is a shot of his se­
nior class in which he stares stern­
ly trom the back row.
Nicnolas wasn't in social or aca­
demic clubs, didn't play on a
sports team or go to a prom.
But teachers and students at
Martin Luther King High School
won't soon forget the face of this
young man, who, on his bunk in a
crowded room in a homeless shel­
ter, studied after school, drew
anime, and eventually became
class valedictorian.
"There were obstacles that I
have had to overcome in my life so
faJ'," he wrote in a college essay.
"However, my inspiration and per­
sonal strengths have helped me
deal with them."
+ Nicholas, an avid artist, com­
pleted college-level courses at
MLK High, on Stenton Avenue.
He graduated with the top GPA in
the class of 2008 - a 3.91 - has
been accepted to the Art Insti­
tute of Philadelphia, and plans to
start this fall. He still hasn't fig­
ured out how to pay the annual tu­
ition ofat least $25,000 a year.
"Just because you are in a bad
situation," he told the Daily News
in a recent interview, "doesn't
mean you can't succeed."
The path to homelessness
When Nicholas was a child, he
lived with both parents in a small
apartment on Bustleton Avenue
near Gifford, but it was far from a
happy home.
His parents were out of work
and argued a lot, Nicholas said.
They were drug addicts, his moth­
er, Sheila Newton, later admitted
to the Daily News.
"Nicholas was sheltered," New­
ton, 48, said. "We would be out
here doing drugs and he would be
in his bedroom. We would cover
the cracks under the dOOl~"
One morning when Nicholas
was still in middle school, he
woke up to loud pounds on the
front door. They had been evict­
PAGE 4 F PHILADELPHIA
ed, Newton said.
Nicholas' father went to live
with his own mother. And New­
ton and Nicholas went to stay at
her mother's one-bedroom apart­
ment in the Northeast. It didn't
last.
His grandmother su ffered from
emphysema and was unable to
work. His mom was still jobless
and said she also was battling a
cocaine addiction. An uncle of
Nicholas' had been helping the
pay the bills but could not longer
afford to do so.
A month before he stal,ted high
school, Nicholas, his mother and
his grandmother were evicted ­
again.
"I expected it," Nicholas said
softly. "Things just started falling
apart."
At age 14, Nicholas had to leave
his friends, most possessions and
set out for the unknown.
With what little they could car­
ry, the family took refuge at
Mount Airy Stenton Family Man­
or, a homeless shelt.er in German­
town. They were assigned a sec­
tion of the shelte,r's communal
room sharp.d by several families.
"It was terrible," Newton re­
called. "He went through depres­
sion. I went through depression.
My mom went through depres­
1I
sion.
The food was miserable. Fights
broke out among residents and
there was no privacy, Newton
said.
She had to tell some women not
to change in the open where ev­
eryone could see. She said their
clothes WE're stolen trom the laun­
dry.
Every weekday, Nicholas
walked a block and a half to Mar­
tin Luther King High. After
school, he returned to the shelter
and studied in the communal
room.
To pass time, Nicholas drew
Japanese anime figures, visited
other teens' bunks and played vid­
eo games. Sometimes he visited
his father.
Shelter workers helped New­
tongetajob.
But life didn't get easier. New­
ton's mother suffered a stroke
Nicholas Shanks (above) with his mother, Sheila Newton. Tops in
his class he's been accepted at the Art Institute of Philadelphia.
and had to be moved to another
shelter to relieve stress.
And in 2005, Newton found a
lump in her breast, was diag­
nosed with breast cancel' and had
to undergo rndiation tl'eatments.
MLK was his escape
Nicholas and his mother stayed
at the shelter for two years and
eventually were moved to a pri­
vateroom.
It was there that she decided to
kick her drug habit for her family
and received support trom shel­
ter workers, Newton said.
Then she and Nicholas found a
new place to stay. They moved to
secured transitional housing at a
"visitation home"· on Kensington
DAILY NEWS
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Avenue near Lehigh. Visitors
must sign in and no male over­
night guests are allowed.
Nicholas was in 11th grade.
The two-bedroom apartment
was "way better" than the shel­
ter, said Nicholas, a shy. soft-spo­
ken, slender teen who is humble
about his obvious accomplish­
ments. But it still had "shelter­
like conditions," he said, with CUl'­
fews at midnight and inspections.
Martin Luther King High was
an escape for him, his teachers
said.
Nicholas was quiet and intro­
verted, said David Mandell, 43, an
MLK teacher who mentored
Nicholas during his senior year.
But ovel' time, Mandell, said,
Nicholas started to verbalize his
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frustrations.
"He overcame his anger
through his artwork," Mandell
said. "I don't think Nick would
have made if it wasn't for his art­
work."
Nicholas wouldn't let his life of
homelessness deter him, said
Mandell, who administered his
advanced calculus test.
"When I proctored that exam,
everyone gave up ... " he said.
"Nicholas was the only student in
that room who actually perse­
vered."
Amanda Fry, 23, Nicholas' ad­
vanced-physics teacher, said she
considered him one of her best
students. His optimism, she said,
amazed her.
"Especially in AP [advanced­
placement] physics, a lot of the
kids complained all the time
about how much work they had,"
she said. "Nick never com­
plained. It was just amazing to
me because in some ways I think
he had it harder than a lot of the
other kids in the classroom."
MLK High principal Kris Di­
viny remains impressed by Nicho­
las' achievements.
"To know what he had to over­
come, from us who knew, it was re­
ally inspiring," she said.
Aiding homeless kid!;!
Homeless children are a "hid­
den population," said Dorette Li­
gons-Ham, regional coordinator
of the city school district's
Homeless Children's Initiative.
About 6,000 kids grades K-12
were homeless last year out of
the 197,000 who attended public
and charter schools in the dis-
See SPARKS Page 6
THURSDAY, JULY 24, 2008
 SPARKS
Continued from Page 4
trict, Ligons-Ham said. The
number could even be higher.
Many people don't report being
homeless, she said; because
they believe they have to live on'
the streets to be so categorized.
Children who live in emergen­
cy shelters or transitional hous­
ing and even those who stay tem­
porarily with friends or rela­
tives are homeless and face dis­
advantages, Ligons-Ham said.
Homeless students tend to
have higher rates of absentee­
ism, tardiness and discipline
problems, said Deborah McMill­
an, assistant vice president of
specialized health services for
the Public Health Management
Corporation.
To help homeless students, Li­
gons-Ham and McMillan creat­
ed the Homeless Teen Educa­
tion Project, which targets
eighth- graders preparing.to
make the critical transition
from middle school to high
school, MI'Millan said.
Elaine Colbert, teen-educa­
tion specialist for the project, a
self-described "one-man show,"
said just this past school year,
she worked with 81 kids, met
with their teachers and parents,
and checked on them at shel­
ters.
"I have students who would
not have graduated if I hadn't
talked to their counselors," she
said.
It's difficult sometimes to help
homeless students because they
don't want their schools to know
their secret, she said.
Colhert met Nicholas when he
was in 10th grade. She was so im­
pressed with his artwork that
she helped him create a portfo­
lio.
This summer, Nicholas is at­
tending the Traveler's Aid Soci­
ety of Philadelphia's summer
program, which helps homeless
See SPARKS Page 24

PAGE 6 F PHI L

SPARKS'
Contin~d from Page 6
students stay productive when
school is out.
Nicholas also works for the
program, housed at the Kirk­
bride Center, at 49th Street
near Arch in West Philadelphia,
as a paid lab assistant.
"When teens get into trouble,
the first thing that goes out the
wind.ow is school," said Mel
Monk, 48, pl'ogram dir·edor.
When teens first become
homeless, they stay out of
school an average of three to six
months, he said.
"One of the thillKS with this
group of kids is that education
will be their key to success,"
Monk::;aid.
"Nobody is going to drop an en­
dowment in their laps.
" ... He's an example to the
other students."
Nicholas' diploma and year­
book sit on the windowsill above
his bed. Only a few friends
scrawled messages in his book.
"To Nick, you have to be the
smartest boy I ever encoun­
tered," says one.
"Nick, stay smart and I hope
you do good in life," says another.
Despite the praise, Nicholas
doesn't view himself "a success
story" until he fulfills more goals.
He hopes to graduate from col­
lege and to become a graphic de­
signer for video games.
''When I was young, to just see
the situation that my parents
were .in," Nicholas said to de­
scribe his d,'ive and ambition, "I
didn't want to be in that situation
again."
He still doesn't know how he's
going to get the money to attend
the Art Institute.
He has a few small scholarships
from high school to help toward
his tuition, Colbert said, but not
nearly enough to cover it.
He was offered a four-year
scholarship to Shippensburg Uni­
versity, in Cumberland County,
but he turned it down, to his moth­
er'sdismay.
Fry and Mandell said they en­
couraged him to apply to more
schools, and Mandell helped' him
to apply for scholarships.
But, Nicholas admitted, he pro­
crastinated in applying, and
hasn't heard anything yet.
Nonetheless, he remains opti­
mistic that it will work out.
His and his mother's housing
contract expires Oct. I, and with
bad credit and little money, New­
ton is struggling to find low-in­
come housing.
Somehow, they say it will work
out.
"Whatever Nick puts his mind
to, he is going to do it," Newton
said.
"My relationship with Nick is
wonderful now," Newton said.
"He knows me and I know him.
Before, I didn't take the time to
get to know him like I should have
just because I was on the drugs."
Now they talk freely about their
family problems and she can tell
him how sorry she is, she said.
She calls him her "godsend."
And Nicholas says he has no
shame or bitterness.
He summed up his philosophy
best on June 17, when he ad­
dressed his class as valedictori­
an.
"Bad living conditions, society
and harsh backgrounds may all
sound like a set-up for failure, but
good can come from it," he said.
"Sometimes the negative acts
as motivation to break out of the
mold and make something out of
nothing." *