Everyday, high school counselors work to help teens achieve their goals, whether that means going to college or finding the right vocational training.
Cathy Painter, a College & Career Counselor at Anderson High School in Austin, Texas, has helped countless kids pursue their dreams after graduation, but one special student inspired her to go further with her efforts than ever before. It all started when she reviewed a college application essay for a student named Russell Sullivan.
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Cathy is mother of two, and says she first got to know Russell when he played football with one of her sons. Although her son and Russell weren’t close friends, she was always impressed by how kind, respectful, and responsible he was both on and off the football field.
Even though Russell’s football career was sidelined by two separate knee injuries, he continued to attend practice, games, and team meetings. Cathy says she thinks Russell wanted to be a part of something larger than himself, and he benefited greatly from his coaches’ positive influence.
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When Russell’s senior year rolled around, he started applying for colleges, so Cathy got to know him better. In an essay he wrote, Cathy learned that behind Russell’s sunny school personality, things at home were beyond dire. Cathy wrote:
Russell doesn’t know who his dad is. His mom has been in jail several times, suffers from drug addiction, is homeless and lives under a bridge in South Austin. He lives with his 93-year-old grandmother who has dementia and doesn’t know who Russell is. Russell and his middle brother take care of her best they can. They feed, clothe, and bathe her.
Russell says in his essay that ‘sometimes she gets very confused and will wake me up in the middle of the night asking to go home. I just tell her to go to bed, and that I’ll take her in the morning. By then, she forgets and continues another day of drinking coffee and watching old western movies.’
Russell has called 911 ‘countless times’ to save her life when she has wandered around the house in the middle of the night aimlessly for hours and falls down from exhaustion.
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Cathy explained that Russell also works at night as a waiter to earn money for himself and his family.
As if this living situation isn’t heartbreaking enough, last year Russell walked into his grandmother’s home to find his oldest brother dead from suicide.
Yet in spite of his crippling grief, he never stops working hard to ensure that his future will be better than his past.
He is remarkably mature and accepting of his situation; he has come to the realization that his mother’s circumstances will not change until she changes them so he is at peace – he goes to see her every Sunday morning and it ‘makes her day.’
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Incredibly, and as a testament to how hard working this young man is, his grade point average is a solid 3.6. Thanks to his strong academic and athletic history, he’s been accepted to several colleges. When Cathy took him on a campus tour of Baylor University in Waco, Texas, Russell knew he’d found “the one.”
On our ride home, he told me he’d live in his car and eat pb&j if it meant he could go to Baylor.
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Cathy says the fact that Baylor is a Christian school and it’s close to home makes it the perfect choice for Russell. The university was generous with his financial aid package, and Russell will continue to apply for scholarships and work throughout his schooling, but there was still a substantial gap in resources for tuition and other expenses.
That’s when Cathy decided to go further to help her student accomplish his goals. The counselor started a GoFundMe campaign to send Russell to his dream college, and when their community heard about it, they stepped up to help one of their own in a very big way.
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Within two days of opening the crowdsourcing campaign, Cathy raised over $75,000 for Russell’s tuition! She has volunteered to personally manage his finances throughout college, gifting him with the sort of support that would normally fall on a family member to provide.
In a way, Cathy has become the supportive family member that Russell never had, but sorely needs. This is just another example of the goodness that can come when someone reaches out to help another person, without even being asked to do so.
Please share this story to say “thank you” to Cathy for caring so much about her students, and to wish Russell good luck in college next fall!
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