Student who worked as garbage collector to support family is accepted into Harvard

A Maryland student who woke up at 4:00AM to begin his job as a garbage collector in an effort to support his family has earned a place at Harvard Law School.

Twenty-four-year-old Rehan Staton from Bowie, Maryland, will begin his time at the prestigious law school in the fall after a difficult start in life that could have easily caused him to give up on his dreams.

This is the incredible moment Staton found out he'd been accepted to Harvard: 

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Staton said he had experienced an "uneventful" upbringing - that was until his mother walked out on the family and left the country when he was eight years old.

His father then struggled to bring Staton and his older brother Reggie up alone, and even worked as many as three jobs at a time to support his two sons.

"I wasn't eating meals every day and my dad was working all the time," Staton told CNN. "Sometimes there'd be no electricity at home."

When things did seem to be looking up for Staton, a shoulder injury soon cut short his dreams of becoming a boxer and, despite a strong academic performance, he was rejected from every college he applied to.

That's when he took up a job at Bates Trucking & Trash Removal. Here, his academic prowess was admired, and his colleagues - some of them ex-convicts - encouraged him to go to school.

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In an interview with CNN, Staton said: "It was the first time in my life people were lifting me up for the sake of lifting me up and not because I was good at sports.

"Throughout my entire life all the people in my life who I was supposed to look up to were the ones who always downplayed me and made me feel bad about myself.

"I had to go to the 'bottom' of the social hierarchy - that's to say formerly incarcerated sanitation workers - in order to be uplifted."

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The company owner's son, Brent Bates, played a particularly key role in changing Staton's life when he introduced Staton to a professor at Bowie State University, who appealed to the admissions board to get him a place.

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His brother Reggie, now 27, was a sophomore at the college at this time, and he dropped out to give Staton the best possible chance of achieving his potential.

Staton then went on to study at the University of Maryland where he earned a 4.0 GPA before graduating in 2018.

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He then went on to work in political consulting with the Robert Bobb Group as he studied for the LSAT, and achieved places at numerous law schools including Harvard, Columbia, University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California, and Pepperdine.

"When I look back at my experiences, I like to think that I made the best of the worst situation," he told CNN.

Staton credits his time working as a garbage collector in helping him to get to where he is today.

Congratulations Rehan - your achievements are thoroughly deserved!