Aaliyah is the first person in her family to graduate from college

Everybody told me what I couldn't do. Ms. Carla just asked what I wanted to do, and then she found out how.

Aaliyah entered foster care at 13 and moved between seven placements before she turned 17. She changed high schools three times. When she aged out, she had a 2.4 GPA, a backpack, and a voicemail from a cousin who said she could stay for a week.

She found The Porch through a friend. Within a month she was in a Landing Homes apartment and meeting weekly with her Pathways coach, Carla Benton.

She started at Central Piedmont Community College, then transferred to UNC Charlotte with help from the Lanternhouse Scholars Fund, which covered her laptop, her parking pass, and the summer housing gap two years in a row.

This May she graduated with a bachelor's degree in public health. She now works as a community health worker for a county clinic and has applied to a master's program for fall.

Shared with Aaliyah's permission. Some details have been changed to protect privacy.