Homeless Florida teen graduates as high school valedictorian

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Despite homelessness, one teen in Florida has crowned himself an overcomer: he served as class president throughout his high school career is graduating as the valedictorian.

“It’s been a rocky road, a lot of hardships,” Martin Folsom, a student at A. Philip Randolph Career Academies in Jacksonville, said in a video posted online by Duval County Public Schools. “But seeing myself now about to graduate, about to go to college – it feels good knowing all the stuff I’ve done was worth it.”

In the video, watched thousands of times since it posted two weeks ago, Folsom expressed appreciation for people who helped him and his mother in their battle with homelessness since 2012.

Eight years after he went to his first homeless shelter. Learning that he would graduate at the top of his class “gave me a jolt in my chest,” Folsom told Action News Jax.

He plans to attend Valdosta State University in Georgia this fall, and hopes to work for the FBI after college, the television station reported.

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