BYHEIDI EVANSSUNDAY NEWSSTAFF WRITER
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Sunday, March 26, 2000, 12:00 AM
They have lived through things no child should have to endure: abandonment, drug-addicted parents, poverty and abuse. But through their innate strength and courage - or the good fortune to have had just one person who cared - they have managed to survive, even triumph. Six New York City high school seniors have been chosen by the Washington, D.C.-based Children's Defense Fund from more than 320 city high school seniors who have overcome great adversity, achieved academic success and worked actively in their communities. They will receive the organization's "Beat the Odds" awards - including $5,000 in scholarship funds and a new computer - tomorrow at the New York Hilton. Here are their stories:
SHAWNTA BENNETT, 18, Dewitt Clinton High School, the Bronx
Both of Shawnta's parents were drug addicts. As a little child, she witnessed her mother being hit by her father. Then, she recalls, her mother kissed her goodbye once on the head and disappeared. Shawnta was just 4. She entered a life of foster care with abusive relatives and played mother and protector to her younger sister, who was later separated from her. Through all the instability and emotional trauma, however, Shawnta took strength from school and her own passion for learning. She excelled in almost everything. "I pushed hard so that I may use my education as a way for me to excel in life," she said. At 13, Shawnta and her sister were reunited, but in the home of a controlling elderly aunt where she still lives, despite daily verbal abuse. "For four years I have been cursed and threatened. I thought I was going to die in that house," said Shawnta, who volunteers at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan. All that is about to change for Shawnta, who hopes to become an orthopedic surgeon. Last week she was accepted by Emory University and plans to take a Greyhound bus to Atlanta next month to see the campus - and the beginnings of a new life. -- "I am the living proof that what does not kill you makes you stronger.
MIGUEL RODRIGUEZ, 17, The Beacon School, Manhattan
His mother abandoned him at birth. His father was in prison. Little Miguel was shuttled from one foster home to another before he was 3 years old. "As I was growing up, I was a hyperactive kid with problems that I could not understand or handle," he explained. "Finally the stress got to me and I exploded and started fighting everyday. I was placed on medication that made me even worse and placed in a mental ward at Mount Sinai Hospital.
" Life finally had seemed to settle down for Miguel when he was 13, thanks to a loving foster mother, Doris Henderson. When she suddenly died of a blood clot right before his eyes, he went into an emotional tailspin. Soon after her death, he assaulted another boy and was sentenced to seven months at Spofford Juvenile Detention Center. When he got out, he was behind in school. Then his foster father died and Miguel was without parents once again. But he persevered. "What helped me get through this were my teachers from Beacon School," said Miguel. "They cared and helped guide me through the obstacles that were in my way. I'd be in an awful predicament without them.
" Despite his hardships, Miguel, who now lives in a group home, has excellent grades, is vice president for his school's chapter of Aspira, a nonprofit youth organization, and is a point guard for Beacon's basketball team. Miguel was accepted at John Jay College and wants to become a criminal psychologist or a correction officer. "When I think about what I went through I am amazed I was able to accomplish all I have. I just did what I had to do, and didn't make any excuses. His dream is to finish college and be successful. Most importantly, he added, "I want to find that peace I've been looking for my whole life.
ANGELIQUE MELNYK, 18, Telecommunications High School, Brooklyn
For five years Angelique battled an illness whose grip she could not break - anorexia nervosa. She was hospitalized six times, often near death. At one point, she weighed only 69 pounds. "Anorexia nervosa is so subtle and insidious that you don't even know that you are fighting until it has taken firm root in your mind," she wrote in her winning essay. "Most of the time I just wanted to give up and die, running from the issues I did not want to face - my mother's chronic illness, being abandoned by my father, not having enough money, the death of a nurturing uncle and trying to fit in and be perfect.
" It was her love of learning, she says, that kept her going. Today, Angelique is editor of her school yearbook, a tutor and does community outreach for her school. She has applied to Skidmore College, where she wants to study psychology. "She has a certain kind of drive and enthusiasm for learning and people that is quite remarkable in a young person," says her mentor, Audrey Tumbarello. Angelique is thankful she now has "a feeling that I thought I would never experience - that I am a worthwhile person who deserves all the good things that life has to offer. I am strong.