By Dedrick Russell
Lawndale, NC (WBTV/CNN) - Dawn Loggins has an amazing story to tell.
The 18-year-old has been homeless, abandoned by her parents, and called a high school dropout.
But she didn't let those challenges stop her from living her dream of one day attending an Ivy League school.
She was accepted to Harvard University.
Senior Dawn Loggins is on the right road now, but getting there was rough. She is now making A's in school and earning a living as a custodian at her high school. Her challenging life began when she lived with her grandmother.
"There was trash all over the house she never really explained to me like that it was important to shower it was important to take care of yourself so I would go months at a time without showering I would wear the same dress to school for months at a time," said Dawn.
And that's when the teasing and bullying started.
"They would say you are pretty pretty ugly," she said. "It actually got so bad at a point in middle school I would go home every day and just cry."
At 13 Dawn started living with her mom and stepfather. Things didn't get better.
"There would be times we went without power or water for months at a time," she said. :I remember doing my homework by candlelight cause I am that determined to succeed."
When she enrolled at Burns High School she was listed as a dropout because she missed two straight months of school.
She worked hard, taking online courses so she could catch up. Now she is in AP and honors classes. She says her dream was to always attend an Ivy League school.
"When I was younger I looked around at my family and I saw the neglect the drug abuse the bad choices and I saw my family living from paycheck to paycheck and I just made a decision that I was not going to end up like my parents," she said.
She is getting some scholarship money from Harvard. The rest she will work for and hopefully the community will step in. They already have.
"The generosity of this community is amazing," said Dawn.
As this Harvard bound teen starts a new life, she can say dreams do come true and giving up doesn't pay off.
"There are no excuses it depends on you and no one else," she said.
WBTV/CNN