Homeless Tennessee Teen Triumphs, Earns $3M In Scholarship Offers

MEMPHIS, TN — Tupac Moseley was determined not to let homelessness define him. The 18-year-old Memphis teen who graduated at the top of his class at Raleigh-Egypt High School was named valedictorian, but more impressive, he received $3 million in scholarship offers, including one for a full ride, and another a prestigious Gates Scholarship from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Nearly all of the 50 universities Moseley applied to responded with letters for financial aid. The teen has settled on Nashville-based Tennessee State University, where he got a full-ride scholarship to study electrical engineering, beginning in the fall.

University President Glenda Glover’s hand-delivered offer will give the homeless teen peace of mind in the future, but also in the present. Moseley won’t begin his course work until the fall, but he can move into his dorm immediately. His meals are on Tennessee State.

The teen told news station WHBQ the offer “changed his life.”

“Tupac is not homeless anymore,” Glover said during the scholarship award presentation at the high school cafeteria, according to a Tennessee State University news release. “He now has his own room with a meal plan with all the necessary amenities to help him continue his success as an academically talented student. That’s what we do. We are an HBCU (a historically black college or university), we care about our students.

“It is in our DNA that we can see a student with this much potential and talent and see what we can do to assist him even before he starts his academic journey.”

When he was a sophomore, Moseley’s father died of organ failure. His mother tried to make ends meet on her wages as a company manager, but the bills piled up. Unable to pay their rent, Moseley, his mother and his 22-year-old brother were evicted in February.

The family shuffled from one friend’s house to another before finally settling at For the Kingdom, a camping site for Memphis youths operated by a religious organization. Learning of the family’s distress, the director allowed them to stay there even though the camp's mission has never been to serve as a homeless shelter.

Moseley's grades never faltered, and he graduated with a 4.3 grade point average, which was augmented by stellar grades in advanced placement STEM classes.

Moseley not the only member of his Class of 2019 to overcome adversity, he said in a stirring valedictory speech.

In the December 2018 Point-in-Time homeless count for Memphis and Shelby County, 348 of the 1,226 homeless residents were members of families living in shelters or on the streets. Almost half of Memphis children under 18 live in poverty, according to a University of Memphis study.

“Many of us on stage have lost one already, including myself. I lost my father my sophomore year,” Mosely said. “But that did not act as a complete deterrent to any of us, because we are still here today, on stage, graduating.”

Others in his class also have lost homes and utilities and been stripped of the basic necessities in life. Worry “if we were going to eat the next day or where we would lay our heads” was a constant companion, he said, yet they persevered and prevailed over their circumstances.

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“Never let your current situation, whatever circumstances you’re going through, be a mountain that you can’t climb,” he said.

In his speech, Moseley glossed over the harsh realities of homelessness for teens like him. Focusing on school, writing college essays and filling out scholarship applications was hardly a breeze, though.

“It affected my ability to write,” Moseley told NBC News. “I procrastinated a lot.”

Administrators, teachers, counselors and classmates at his school became like family, encouraging him throughout the most difficult period so far in his life, Moseley said.

That may be, high school principal Shari Meeks said, but the credit goes to Moseley, who despite the adversity he was facing in his personal life, tutored classmates and was always willing to help where needed.

“He is brilliant and you wouldn’t even know he was going through everything he was going through,” Meeks told NBC. “He is so resilient and handles everything with such poise and grace.”

At the send-off reception where Moseley received the Tennessee State scholarship, Shelby County Schools Superintendent Joris M. Ray also credited the teen’s resilience and strength.

“I am so proud of his hard work, dedication, and he defied the odds with a great support system here at school that helped him to overcome and achieve in the midst of turmoil,” Ray said in the Tennessee State news release. “I am so proud of Tupac, what he has done here, what he has done for our city and school district.”

State Rep. Antonio Parkinson, who also attended the send-off reception, said Moseley is the “best and brightest talent that has ever been produced in Shelby County.”

The teen’s achievements stand as a reminder to other teens in Memphis and elsewhere not to be defined by adversity.

“Your location is not your limitation,” Moseley told NBC. “Anything that is a blockade is not something you can’t overcome."