dawn loggens.eers) >> when dawn loggens got her high school diploma, the auditorium quilled with thousands erupted. the harvard university bound grad beat the odds and the crowd knew it. loggens used to be homeless. >> i found myself absolutely homeless with nowhere to go. i stayed at friend's houses in between. >> loggens' childhood was complicated boo i evictions, a parent involved with drugs and hunger, she only felt peace after being sent away to cool her junior year, but when she returned, there was something missing, her parents. they had moved leaving her to fend for herself. >> and most kids in my situation do not overcome this. they turn to drugs, and they turn to crime. >> a school employee took loggens in and the teen worked as a janitor, on campus long before sunrise to peck up gum off the floor and vacuum hallways. >> school has, i think, been her ticket. and her sanity and she knew it was a way out. >> all of that hard work for dreams of stability and success. >> my future is going to

loggens used to be homeless. >> i found myself absolutely homeless with nowhere to go.iend's houses in between. >> loggens childhood was complicated by evictions, a parent involved with drugs and hunger. and only felt peace after sent away from home her junior year and when she returned home something was missing, her parents had moved, leaving her to fend for herself. >> and most kids in my situation do not overcome this. they turn to drugs and they turn to crime. >> a school employee took loggens in and the teen worked as a janitor to make a living. she was on campus long before sunrise to pick gum off the floor, and vacuum hallways. >> school has, i think, been her ticket, as to sanity, and she knew it was a way out. all of that hard work for dreams of civility and success. >> my teacher is going to be great. and i know it is, and like harvard is going to make that happen, but also, it's stability. i'm not going to have to worry about where my meals are coming from or where i'm going to sleep at night. >> and also, quick to remind you that she's getting a need based

it's not often we find a woman like dawn loggens.ork harder than anyone else in her high school to get that diploma and head to harvard. [ male announcer ] citi turns 200 this year. in that time there've been some good days. and some difficult ones. but, through it all, we've persevered, supporting some of the biggest ideas in modern history. so why should our anniversary matter to you? because for 200 years, we've been helping ideas move from ambition to achievement. and the next great idea could be yours. ♪ to provide a better benefits package... oahhh! [ male announcer ] it made a big splash with the employees. [ duck yelling ] [ male announcer ] find out more at... [ duck ] aflac! [ male announcer ] ...forbusiness.com. ♪ ha ha! >>> here at this point in the show we are usually doing much different -- much more different -- what? -- sorry. we're usually doing much different stories than the one we are about to show you tonight. when we heard about the story we wanted to cover it. today is graduation day in lawndale, north carolina

last summer this young lady dawn loggens came home from summer camp, found out her parents had abandonedthey moved to tennessee. she was moving from couch to couch until the school custodian took her in. well, dawn started helping out and working at the school as a janitor while she continued to work at burns high school. >> i remember doing my home work by candle light because i'm that determined to succeed. >> well, now she has been accepted to harvard. she said she got a lot of scholarship money and people from the community chipped in to cover the rest of her cause. now she's expected to see what she can really accomplish now that things are going her way. an incredible story. >> i think harvard made a good move. >> going to be impressive if she graduates from harvard and she goes to her first job interview and says i graduated from harvard. >> that's nice. >> good morning everybody let's go out and take a look at the commute now. traffic is -- actually it's in came bridge, not boston. i regret that error. let's go out and take a look at the commute on northbound 280. that traffic is

. >> loggens and messina. >> how did you miss that? >> i didn't miss it. i didn't miss it. edit that out. >> i can't imagine he would come up with something that lame. >> we'll take that out in post. this lineup we have coming up, arianna huffington, peter orszag and general ray odierno. it's time to live wider awake. only the beautyrest recharge sleep system combines the comfort of aircool memory foam layered on top of beautyrest pocketed coils to promote proper sleeping posture all night long. the revolutionary recharge sleep system... from beautyrest. it's you, fully charged. [ male announcer ] from our nation's networks... ♪ ...to our city streets... ♪ ...to skies around the world... ♪ ...northrop grumman's security solutions are invisibly at work, protecting people's lives... [ soldier ] move out! [ male announcer ] ...without their even knowing it. that's the value of performance. northrop grumman. >>> andrea mitchell, we can't let you go before asking who you're going to have on at 1:00 this afternoon. >> willie geist, thank you. i'll be in philadelphia. we'll have e