Escolar Documentos
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Cultura Documentos
CORRECTION
In Ellen Gray's Tuesday
TV column, Keith Olber
mann erred in saying that
Bill O'Reilly and Sean Han
Youth went from homeless shelter
nity have anchored news
programs on primary
t~ the top spot in his high school class
nights, a "Fox News"
spokesperson said yester
day. According to Fox,
By NICOLE NORFLEET ed, Newton said. O'Reilly and Hannity have
norjlen@phillyne,us.com Nicholas' father went to live
215-854-#14
provided on-air analysis
with his own mother. And New and commentary.
ton and Nicholas went to stay at
N HlS high-school yearbook,
I the only photo of 18-year-old
NicholasShanks is a shot of his se
her mother's one-bedroom apart
ment in the Northeast. It didn't
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Nicnolas wasn't in social or aca work. His mom was still jobless <Om
demic clubs, didn't play on a and said she also was battling a
sports team or go to a prom. cocaine addiction. An uncle of
But teachers and students at Nicholas' had been helping the
Martin Luther King High School frustrations.
pay the bills but could not longer "He overcame his anger
won't soon forget the face of this afford to do so.
young man, who, on his bunk in a through his artwork," Mandell
A month before he stal,ted high said. "I don't think Nick would
crowded room in a homeless shel school, Nicholas, his mother and
ter, studied after school, drew have made if it wasn't for his art
his grandmother were evicted work."
anime, and eventually became again.
class valedictorian. Nicholas wouldn't let his life of
"I expected it," Nicholas said homelessness deter him, said
"There were obstacles that I softly. "Things just started falling
have had to overcome in my life so Mandell, who administered his
apart." advanced calculus test.
faJ'," he wrote in a college essay.
At age 14, Nicholas had to leave "When I proctored that exam,
"However, my inspiration and per
his friends, most possessions and everyone gave up ... " he said.
sonal strengths have helped me
set out for the unknown. "Nicholas was the only student in
deal with them."
With what little they could car that room who actually perse
+ Nicholas, an avid artist, com ry, the family took refuge at vered."
pleted college-level courses at
Mount Airy Stenton Family Man Amanda Fry, 23, Nicholas' ad
MLK High, on Stenton Avenue.
or, a homeless shelt.er in German vanced-physics teacher, said she
He graduated with the top GPA in
town. They were assigned a sec considered him one of her best
the class of 2008 - a 3.91 - has tion of the shelte,r's communal
been accepted to the Art Insti students. His optimism, she said,
room sharp.d by several families. amazed her.
tute of Philadelphia, and plans to
"It was terrible," Newton re "Especially in AP [advanced
start this fall. He still hasn't fig
called. "He went through depres placement] physics, a lot of the
ured out how to pay the annual tu
sion. I went through depression. kids complained all the time
ition ofat least $25,000 a year.
My mom went through depres about how much work they had,"
"Just because you are in a bad 1I
sion. JESSICA GRIFFIN I OaUy Nows she said. "Nick never com
situation," he told the Daily News
The food was miserable. Fights Nicholas Shanks (above) with his mother, Sheila Newton. Tops in plained. It was just amazing to
in a recent interview, "doesn't
broke out among residents and his class he's been accepted at the Art Institute of Philadelphia. me because in some ways I think
mean you can't succeed."
there was no privacy, Newton he had it harder than a lot of the
said. and had to be moved to another Avenue near Lehigh. Visitors other kids in the classroom."
The path to homelessness
She had to tell some women not shelter to relieve stress. must sign in and no male over MLK High principal Kris Di
When Nicholas was a child, he to change in the open where ev And in 2005, Newton found a night guests are allowed. viny remains impressed by Nicho
lived with both parents in a small eryone could see. She said their lump in her breast, was diag Nicholas was in 11th grade. las' achievements.
apartment on Bustleton Avenue clothes WE're stolen trom the laun nosed with breast cancel' and had The two-bedroom apartment "To know what he had to over
near Gifford, but it was far from a dry. to undergo rndiation tl'eatments. was "way better" than the shel come, from us who knew, it was re
happy home. Every weekday, Nicholas ter, said Nicholas, a shy. soft-spo ally inspiring," she said.
His parents were out of work walked a block and a half to Mar MLK was his escape ken, slender teen who is humble
and argued a lot, Nicholas said. tin Luther King High. After about his obvious accomplish Aiding homeless kid!;!
They were drug addicts, his moth school, he returned to the shelter Nicholas and his mother stayed ments. But it still had "shelter
er, Sheila Newton, later admitted and studied in the communal at the shelter for two years and like conditions," he said, with CUl' Homeless children are a "hid
to the Daily News. room. eventually were moved to a pri fews at midnight and inspections. den population," said Dorette Li
"Nicholas was sheltered," New To pass time, Nicholas drew vateroom. Martin Luther King High was gons-Ham, regional coordinator
ton, 48, said. "We would be out Japanese anime figures, visited It was there that she decided to an escape for him, his teachers of the city school district's
here doing drugs and he would be other teens' bunks and played vid kick her drug habit for her family said. Homeless Children's Initiative.
in his bedroom. We would cover eo games. Sometimes he visited and received support trom shel Nicholas was quiet and intro About 6,000 kids grades K-12
the cracks under the dOOl~" his father. ter workers, Newton said. verted, said David Mandell, 43, an were homeless last year out of
One morning when Nicholas Shelter workers helped New Then she and Nicholas found a MLK teacher who mentored the 197,000 who attended public
was still in middle school, he tongetajob. new place to stay. They moved to Nicholas during his senior year. and charter schools in the dis-
woke up to loud pounds on the But life didn't get easier. New secured transitional housing at a But ovel' time, Mandell, said,
front door. They had been evict ton's mother suffered a stroke "visitation home"· on Kensington Nicholas started to verbalize his See SPARKS Page 6
PAGE 6 F PHI L
SPARKS' Monk, 48, pl'ogram dir·edor. Nicholas' diploma and year his tuition, Colbert said, but not "My relationship with Nick is
Contin~d from Page 6 When teens first become book sit on the windowsill above nearly enough to cover it. wonderful now," Newton said.
homeless, they stay out of his bed. Only a few friends He was offered a four-year "He knows me and I know him.
students stay productive when school an average of three to six scrawled messages in his book. scholarship to Shippensburg Uni Before, I didn't take the time to
school is out. months, he said. "To Nick, you have to be the versity, in Cumberland County, get to know him like I should have
Nicholas also works for the "One of the thillKS with this smartest boy I ever encoun but he turned it down, to his moth just because I was on the drugs."
program, housed at the Kirk group of kids is that education tered," says one. er'sdismay.
will be their key to success," "Nick, stay smart and I hope Fry and Mandell said they en Now they talk freely about their
bride Center, at 49th Street family problems and she can tell
near Arch in West Philadelphia, Monk::;aid. you do good in life," says another. couraged him to apply to more
"Nobody is going to drop an en Despite the praise, Nicholas schools, and Mandell helped' him him how sorry she is, she said.
as a paid lab assistant.
"When teens get into trouble, dowment in their laps. doesn't view himself "a success to apply for scholarships. She calls him her "godsend."
the first thing that goes out the " ... He's an example to the story" until he fulfills more goals. But, Nicholas admitted, he pro And Nicholas says he has no
wind.ow is school," said Mel other students." He hopes to graduate from col crastinated in applying, and shame or bitterness.
lege and to become a graphic de hasn't heard anything yet. He summed up his philosophy
signer for video games. Nonetheless, he remains opti best on June 17, when he ad
''When I was young, to just see mistic that it will work out. dressed his class as valedictori
the situation that my parents His and his mother's housing an.
were .in," Nicholas said to de contract expires Oct. I, and with
scribe his d,'ive and ambition, "I bad credit and little money, New "Bad living conditions, society
didn't want to be in that situation ton is struggling to find low-in and harsh backgrounds may all
again." come housing. sound like a set-up for failure, but
He still doesn't know how he's Somehow, they say it will work good can come from it," he said.
going to get the money to attend out. "Sometimes the negative acts
the Art Institute. "Whatever Nick puts his mind as motivation to break out of the
He has a few small scholarships to, he is going to do it," Newton mold and make something out of
from high school to help toward said. nothing." *