A Texas girl who was born in jail has shucked off her tough start and is proving herself to be a massive success after she graduated at the top of her high school class and was admitted to Harvard University. Aurora Sky Castner came into the world at Galveston County Jail, where her mother was serving time. Now, The Courier reports that she was third in her class at Conroe High School and used her early adversity as a way to change her future.
Castner’s father picked her up from the prison when she was only a newborn and she’s never had a relationship with her birth mother since. Instead, she was raised by a single dad who worked hard to ensure she would have the best possible life.
The teen’s application essay for Harvard is said to have started with the sentence “I was born in prison,” and it was clearly impressive enough for the Ivy League university to offer her a place. Aurora Sky Castner plans to study law when she begins her college career this fall.
Castner and her father moved around within Montgomery County a lot while she was young, and it wasn’t until CISD’s Project Mentor came into her life that everything fell into place.
Her mentor, Mona Hamby, wasn’t just there to help Castner academically but with her everyday life as well. “I was given a paper about her. Her hero was Rosa Parks, her favorite food was tacos from Dairy Queen and she loved to read. I thought this sounds like a bright little girl. I still have that paper today,” she told the Courier.
Hamby went with Castner to get her teeth taken care of, get her first haircut, and go to summer camp like other kids her age. Having Hamby in her life changed everything for the young girl.
“It was a very different environment than I grew up in and that’s not a bad thing,” Castner said. “Everything that Mona taught me was very valuable in the same way that everything that I went through before Mona was very valuable.”
It looks like Aurora Sky Castner has a very bright future ahead of her indeed, not just at Harvard but beyond!
