With everything that has been going on in the news recently this is a pretty great story. A 17-year-old kid in Jersey City, New Jersey just got accepted to 17 different colleges.  And it’s a big deal, because he’s been homeless for a large portion of his life.

His name is Dylan Chidick.  He came to the U.S. from Trinidad with his mom when he was seven, but he’s a U.S. citizen now.

His family has been homeless off and on since he was young.  But he still managed to make it into the National Honor Society, and he’s also president of his class.

He says his mom’s courage is what inspires him to work so hard.  And he knows how hard life can be.  So he’s determined to lift his family up and never let them get back to a place where they have to struggle so much.

He’s been accepted to 17 schools so far, including a few big ones like Xavier.  Wherever he ends up, he plans to work as hard as he can.  And he’s planning to major in political science. We talked to him this morning about his amazing story.

UPDATE: Since we talked to him we found out that Dylan was just accepted into his 18th college, The College of New Jersey, near Trenton.  That’s his top choice, partly because it’s close to his mom. Not only that but we found out someone is paying his entire tuition, plus full room and board.  Congrats Dylan.  You deserve it.