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Nicholas wasn't in social or academic clubs, didn't play on a sports team or go to a prom.
But teachers and students at Martin Luther King High School won't soon forget the face of this young man, who, on his bunk in a crowded room in a homeless shelter, studied after school, drew anime, and eventually became class valedictorian.
"There were obstacles that I have had to overcome in my life so far," he wrote in a college essay. "However, my inspiration and personal strengths have helped me deal with them."
Nicholas, an avid artist, completed college-level courses at MLK High, on Stenton Avenue. He graduated with the top GPA in the class of 2008 - a 3.91 - has been accepted to the Art Institute of Philadelphia, and plans to start this fall. He still hasn't figured out how to pay the annual tuition of at least $25,000 a year.
"Just because you are in a bad situation," he told the Daily News in a recent interview, "doesn't mean you can't succeed."
When Nicholas was a child, he lived with both parents in a small apartment on Bustleton Avenue near Gifford, but it was far from a happy home.
His parents were out of work and argued a lot, Nicholas said. They were drug addicts, his mother, Sheila Newton, later admitted to the Daily News.
"Nicholas was sheltered," Newton, 48, said. "We would be out here doing drugs and he would be in his bedroom. We would cover the cracks under the door."
One morning when Nicholas was still in middle school, he woke up to loud pounds on the front door. They had been evicted, Newton said.
Nicholas' father went to live with his own mother. And Newton and Nicholas went to stay at her mother's one-bedroom apartment in the Northeast. It didn't last.
His grandmother suffered from emphysema and was unable to work. His mom was still jobless and said she also was battling a cocaine addiction. An uncle of Nicholas' had been helping the pay the bills but could not longer afford to do so.
A month before he started high school, Nicholas, his mother and his grandmother were evicted - again.
"I expected it," Nicholas said softly. "Things just started falling apart."
At age 14, Nicholas had to leave his friends, most possessions and set out for the unknown.
With what little they could carry, the family took refuge at Mount Airy Stenton Family Manor, a homeless shelter in Germantown. They were assigned a section of the shelter's communal room shared by several families.
"It was terrible," Newton recalled. "He went through depression. I went through depression. My mom went through depression."
The food was miserable. Fights broke out among residents and there was no privacy, Newton said.
She had to tell some women not to change in the open where everyone could see. She said their clothes were stolen from the laundry.
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