Ex-shelter teen is bound for Boston University

Danielle Galloway loves the order of math.

She likes that it requires certain steps to get the right answer. Success in life, she says, is the same way. Galloway, who graduates Friday night from North Atlanta High School, tells herself that if she can get through math, she can get through life.

“But Miss Isaac the other day told me I should reverse it and say, if I can get through the crazy things I’ve been through in my life, I can get through math,” said Galloway.

Terina Isaac is Galloway’s school counselor. She obviously knows a few things.

“I think Danielle’s a typical teenager with an atypical history,” said Isaac.

Galloway, 17, is the eldest of six in a family that has grown up homeless in Atlanta. They’ve bounced from shelter to shelter, occasionally to an apartment, and back to another shelter. By her count, Galloway has attended 10 different schools. Her father is largely absent from her life. Her stepfather is in jail for molesting her. (The AJC doesn’t typically name sexually assault victims, but Galloway gave her permission.) And yet, Galloway has graduated in the top 25 percent of her class. In the fall, she will attend Boston University on a full-tuition scholarship. She plans to run a foundation that will provide mentors to homeless and low-income children.

“She’s a self-made person,” said Connie Buchanan, the executive director of an Atlanta nonprofit that provides health care to the homeless. “I want her to feel the success and own that success. She is where she is because of her.”

Buchanan first met Galloway when she was about 10. She and her family were living at a shelter on Moreland Avenue, a space of two large rooms on the third floor of First Iconium Baptist Church. There were about 50 bunk beds in each room, with no air conditioning and dim lighting. Galloway was the one talking to the medical and public health students working for Buchanan’s nonprofit, Community Advanced Practice Nurses, picking their brains and soaking up their knowledge.

“You knew in the beginning she was going to make it,” she said.

Galloway found a safe harbor in school, and said she “just threw all the negative energy from my house” into her education.

“And I found that I liked learning,” she said. “People used to call me the nerd. It always felt good to be the smart one.”

Academic achievement has rewarded her and helped her overcome the wounds from a life in shelters. There was little privacy for herself or her family. In middle school, she wanted to join student government and the cheerleading team but couldn’t, because when they met, she had to pick up her siblings from school and day care. She also felt uncomfortable visiting friends’ houses because she couldn’t reciprocate the invitation.

Since coming to North Atlanta as a junior, Galloway hasn’t missed a day of school — despite a number of different living arrangements, Isaac said.

For the past year, she has lived with Isaac’s sister Brenda. With both Isaac sisters looking after her, Galloway said, “I really felt like a kid.”

She thinks she wants to study math at Boston University. She’s also considering a career in child advocacy law. Still, she worries about her siblings, four of whom live with their mother and her boyfriend in College Park. The second oldest, Roderick, 14, is an eighth-grader at a boarding school in Rabun Gap. But, for now, Galloway is on her way.

Said Galloway, “Just being able to move from always feeling like I will never get anywhere, or this is where I’m supposed to be, to feeling like, I’ve been there, I’ve done that, I will not do it again — that feels good.”

The Posse Foundation

Danielle Galloway will receive a full-tuition scholarship from Boston University. She was one of 31 metro Atlanta high school students identified by the Posse Foundation, which partners with colleges to give scholarships to promising students from disadvantaged urban backgrounds.

The students go to Bard College, the College of Wooster or Boston University in 10-student teams, or posses, where they are able to support one another. Posse Foundation students have a 90 percent graduation rate. The foundation, founded in 1989, draws students from Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Washington. This year, 650 students were nominated in metro Atlanta. In addition to Galloway, this year’s recipients include:

• Marcel Baugh, Druid Hills

• Erica Bryant,

Carver School of the Arts

• Matthew Campbell, North Atlanta

• Cara Chalk, Cherokee

• Stephanie Derrick, DeKalb School of the Arts

• Darius Dixon, Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy

• Kasey Elliott, Westlake

• Robert Fleming, DeKalb School of the Arts

• Grayson Gibbs Atlanta International School

• Laura Haldane, Tech

• Miriam Huppert, Grady

• Lena James, Grady

• Brandon LaBord, Therrell School of Business and Entrepreneurship

• Daniel Lievens, North Atlanta

• Hannah Mitchell, Grady

• Vanja Pantic, Druid Hills

• Kenneth Perry Jr., Washington

• Malcolm Perry, Grady

• Aretha Pinkney, Therrell School of Business and Entrepreneurship

• Jessica Pringle, Chamblee

• Julian Rainwater, North Atlanta

• Barbara Reynolds, DeKalb School of the Arts

• Alexis Roe, DeKalb School of the Arts

• Angela Skarpelis, Lassiter

• Marque Sterling, Norcross

• Sierra Swann, DeKalb School of the Arts

• Jasmine Verreen, DeKalb School of the Arts

• Demarius Walker, Grady

• Bryan Wright, Brookwood

• Alexia Wynn, Decatur