A Louisiana student was named valedictorian of his high school while living at a homeless shelter in New Orleans for the last 18 months.
Elijah Hogan graduated on May 24 from Walter L. Cohen High School with a 3.93 grade-point average, WDSU-TV reported. The 19-year-old achieved that final grade while living at the Covenant House, a homeless shelter in New Orleans for youths between 16 and 22, according to the television station.
“I thought they were mistaking me for someone else, but when I looked at it and I was shown evidence that it was me, I was in awe, like, I was jaw dropped,” Hogan told CNN.
Hogan was one of two valedictorians in the Class of 2024 at Cohen, a charter high school in New Orleans’ Uptown neighborhood, according to “Good Morning America.”