His dad is long gone, and his mom has just lost her rights to the state of Michigan, but Alex wasn't ready to leave his future up to chance.
The seventeen-year-old ward of the state pulled a list of prospective foster parents off of the internet and started writing impassioned letters. He told his life story - his parents divorced, his father deported back to their native Romania when he was a tot, his mother changing after a devestating car accident.
"Truly all I need is someplace to stay, even if I have to pay a
couple hundred dollars a month in rent, for the 2008-2009 school year," he promised.
Alex was heading into his senior year at Stoney Creek High School in Rochester Hills, Mich., when he started his campaign to stay there until graduation. An honor roll student with near-perfect ACT and SAT scores, his school has been his rock since his mother's car accident. A university professor with a doctorate degree, who Alex describes as a "really good parent" with a "strong moral compass," Alex's mother suffered severe head trauma in the accident and has since been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. The state first yanked her custody rights in 2001, sending Alex bouncing around the foster system.
When he was in eighth grade, the family lost their home and a middle school adminstrator offered Alex temporary shelter. School staff get Alex birthday cakes. They go the extra mile for a kid who is on the path to the Ivy League, a probably National Merit Scholar.
But after being sent from foster home to foster home, Alex landed in a children's home in Gross Pointe Woods, putting him out of the Stoney Creek district. He was a junior with one year to go, and he felt like he'd once again lost his home.
So he started writing his letters - thirty in all - not exactly the way most foster kids navigate the system.
"My school means everything to me. When chaos reigned at home, I
immersed myself in my studies and my friends, forging strong bonds of
compassion and support," he told his potential new parents.
Over the summer, a set of parents stepped forward. They took Alex in, and he's now midway through his senior year at Stoney Creek, with an acceptance letter from the honors program at the University of Michigan, and his fingers crossed that Harvard will accept his application.
If his entrance essay is anything like the letter he wrote (click here for the moving excerpts at the Detroit Free Press), it's a slam dunk. Who wouldn't want this kid in their home?
Image: Detroit Free Press
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