On April 12, 2012, James asked Jessica to help him get into college. A week later, they took the photo on the left, and Jessica swore they’d take the same photo at his college graduation.
Congratulations to Homeless To Higher Ed’s very first college grad! You’re an inspiration to everyone, James!
GRADUATION DAY, class of 2013. Though I attended three high schools in four years, and I didn’t always have an address, I still managed to get into Howard University, and eight other colleges. Failure was not an option. I will find a way to pay for this.
Can you believe #HomelessToHoward went viral two years ago?!?! Who knew a hashtag could change lives and spark a nationwide movement? James is about to be a junior at #HU this fall, and we have three other amazing, deserving students enrolled alongside him in the Homeless to Higher Ed pilot program, which provides financial support, fills in knowledge gaps, and provides intense one-on-one mentorship through just about anything life can throw at a young person in college.
Help us #keepgoing in our goals to 1, normalize the college experience for American homeless students, and 2, destigmatize youth homelessness so these students come out of the shadows. All donations are tax-deductible, so everyone wins! ♡♡♡
I almost kicked this snail on accident just now. Took a picture because it reminds me of burdens and determination. Sometimes our clients feel exhausted: they survived homelessness and got to college, only to realize their work has only just begun. Homeless to Higher Ed pushes them to #keepgoing, and does everything we can to make that possible.
Mentorship. Lifeskills. Guidance. Encouragement. Creature comforts. Financial support. We’re normalizing the college experience, and we need your help to keep going ourselves.
Please consider supporting our work through a tax-deductible donation. We’ve had a recent surge in homeless students asking for help and can only serve them if we have resources ourself to offer.
www.homelesstohighered.org/donate-request-help
I tried to kill myself the day that this picture was taken. Thankfully, I failed.
Please share widely and help us raise awareness for youth homelessness. Homeless kids look just like any other kid. Chances are, they’re hiding in plain sight, in your community and local schools. Our current clients were athletes and one was even student body president…and nobody knew their secret struggle.
There are over 1.2 million homeless students in American schools, and just 56,000 in American colleges. 90 percent of those students will never graduate.
Let them know there’s help. Be the one that changes everything for them.
-Jessica Sutherland
Creator, #HomelessToHoward
Co-Founder and President, Homeless to Higher Ed
Have you read it yet? Thanks, everyone, for spreading the word and helping to raise awareness of the unique challenges that #homeless and #foster youth face while pursuing #highereducation
This came across Jessica’s desk the night before last. We’ve connected with Toni, and though we cannot donate to her campaign, we promised to share it with our friends, just in case anyone wants to help.
She needs less than $5000 to meet her fundraising goal…which will enable her to attend Harvard University for graduate school. It’s so frustrating to get into a college, only to realize you’ll never be able to pay for it.
Well, in Toni’s case…in James’ case…we never say never.
Spread the word, even if you can’t donate! You never know who will see it and get her one step closer to a very reachable goal.
HOMELESS TO HIGHER ED FOUNDATION t-shirt mockups just arrived! Big ups to Dave Gruss at @webleedohio and @griggitee for building our graphic identity with us! Growing this charity has been a crazy dream come true.
Thank you to everyone who helped spread our story via social media. We have been a bit overwhelmed by the attention. We never expected to
get any sort of positive outcome from this situation, but we’re happy to tell
you that on Friday we spoke with Michael Mueller, Senior VP of Super 8,
and…
Please keep spreading the word.
Please click the description and keep sharing! Each day that passes is a day without helping two young people whose hope and determination may be compromised by recent events.
#KeepGoing, Stephanie and Louis. We’re trying our hardest to catch up with you.
Thank you to everyone who helped spread our story via social media. We have been a bit overwhelmed by the attention. We never expected to
get any sort of positive outcome from this situation, but we’re happy to tell
you that on Friday we spoke with Michael Mueller, Senior VP of Super 8,
and…
Please keep spreading the word.
A Final Word from George and Joyce Gruss Regarding Super 8’s Eviction of a Homeless Couple in Columbus Ohio.
Thank you to everyone who helped spread our story via social media. We have been a bit overwhelmed by the attention. We never expected to
get any sort of positive outcome from this situation, but we’re happy to tell
you that on Friday we spoke with Michael Mueller, Senior VP of Super 8,
and a refund has been initiated. We plan to donate that money to Maryhaven, a
phenomenal organization in Columbus that pounds the pavement every day, helping
the homeless.
Super 8 has taken full responsibility for the actions of one
independent owner/operator, and promises to work on the company’s internal
training and policies so that this never happens again. Michael expressed
gratitude to us for bringing this to his attention, before apologizing on behalf
of the hotel in question.
In addition to the refund, and promise of internal efforts to
prevent this from happening again, Super 8 is now working behind the scenes with
our friends at Homeless To Higher Ed,
as they attempt to identify Stephanie and Louis. Should we find them, Michael
has generously offered to provideair and ground transport as well
as hotel rooms for them as they get back on track.
We hope you’ll take a look at this description of them and contact us if you’ve seen or
know Stephanie and Louis. If you should encounter them, tell them that Mr.
George and Miz Joyce are looking for them. Let them know they’ve made the news
and we still want to help!
In the meantime, we are eagerly exploring ways we can help here in northeastern Ohio. If our story outraged you,
we can only hope that it didn’t discourage you from trying to make a
difference…in fact, we hope our experience inspires you to find a way to help the
homeless where you are.
Once again, we thank you for helping us bring this to Super 8’s
attention, but for us, this was never about taking down a hotel chain…it was about
helping people. We look forward to helping the homeless in our own backyard and
encourage everyone to do the same.
Warmly,
George and Joyce Gruss
H2H Guest Project: Find #StephAndLou
H2H started on Tumblr, when Jessica Sutherland shared the story of James Ward. With your help, #HomelessToHoward went viral overnight, and led to the creation of Homeless to Higher Ed. With our humble roots in mind, we want to keep on pushing homeless stories to the forefront.
Allow usto present our new initiative, GUEST PROJECTS.
ProjectOne: #StephAndLou
On Valentine’s Day, H2H’s graphic designer, Dave, shared a
screengrab of a Facebook status from his father, George Gruss, asking everyone to help spread the sad story, so Super 8 would make it right.
Super 8 has since promised to
make lasting changes to the way they do business, so that thus never happens again. Not only has the hotel joined
with Jessica and the H2H team to track down the young couple, Super 8 has also
promised to provide transportation and housing in their family of hotels as needed.
HELP US FIND STEPHANIE AND LOUIS.
While we review surveillance footage and comb the area, won’t you
check out the description of the homeless couple below, based on Jessica’s interviews with both George and
Joyce Gruss, and see if you can help us find them? Spread the word with the hashtags #StephAndLou and #FindThem.
“We
only know what they told us, but they both were of average height and build,
and looked to be in their mid-20s. Stephanie had dark blond, or maybe light
brown, curly hair. She wore it pushed
under a white knit cap, and had either blue or hazel eyes. Louis had
mid-length, dark brown hair, dark brown eyes, and was wearing a green knit hat,
with a face protector with the nose cut off. They were dressed for winter, but
their jeans were wet to the calf. They
definitely seemed new to the cold, especially sub-zero wind chills. This
falls in line with what they told us about themselves: Louis hails from Alabama,
and Stephanie from a small town in South Carolina, near Charlotte and the North
Carolina border. She kept referring to Columbus as “Columbia,”
which made us think they hadn’t been in Ohio long. Stephanie
and Louis made no secret that they’d struggled with addiction in the past, and
we didn’t judge them for it. They claimed to be traveling from South
Carolina to work at a rehab mission in Michigan with friends before being left
behind in Columbus. They’d lost their bags early into their struggles,
including their identification. They felt lost in Columbus and seemed
ready to go home.
When
we asked how we could help, they offered us $60 in cash, that they had earned
working temporary jobs—Louis specifically mentioned sign spinning for
a local business—if we could help them get a room for one night. Even
after we’d bought them three nights, they still tried so hard to give us their only
cash. We would have never accepted it, but we’re particularly glad
we refused, since they were later evicted. Beyond
the story they shared with us, it’s worth mentioning that they both had
distinct, but not strong Southern accents, and it was clear they came from
different places, though we’re no dialect experts. They were very respectful,
choosing to call us “Miz Joyce and Mr. George” after we all shared
our first names. They were very vocal about their Christianity and
mentioned that they hoped to open their own mission one day, since they had
made the mistakes but survived to learn the lessons. If
Stephanie or Louis have crossed your path or sound familiar, please do contact
us at findthem@homelesstohighered.org
If you encounter them, please do
tell them that Miz Joyce and Mr. George are looking for them. Maybe pull out your phone and show them that
they’ve made the news, and how much people want to get them the help they need.
If our
experiences touched you in any way, we encourage you to help out the homeless in your
area. Doing good feels good.”
Getting ready to discuss the Super 8 homeless eviction in my first live appearance on RT News! @rt
JULY, 2013: About three weeks before he was scheduled to leave for Washington, DC to attend Howard University as a freshman physics major, JAMES WARD found out his Parent Plus loans were declined for the year-due to his family's poverty and recent homelessness. After seventeen unanswered messages to the HU Financial Aid Office, James's mentor, JESSICA SUTHERLAND, a producer who was also homeless as a child, came up with a Hail Mary, last-chance idea: start a Tumblr blog, and hope to get some attention via social media, until they found a lender willing to take the risk of funding a bright kid's education.
The blog and its hashtag, #HomelessToHoward, quickly went viral, and the end result changed the lives of both James and Jessica forever.
