I often wonder if the state of affairs in the region I love so much will ever improve. Will Haiti ever reach up out of the stifling grips of poverty? It's the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. Will Cuba ever attain a true democracy? It's been a dictatorship since Castro's revolution in 1959. When will the drug cartels in Mexico lay their weapons down? According to Reuters, the drug war has claimed more than 12,000 lives in nearly 3 years. That's been at least 10 people a day.

Reading about high school graduate Khadijah Williams gives me hope that one day, we can answer those questions, solve those issues, then celebrate with unbridled joy at our collective accomplishments (like most of the nation did when we watched President Obama give his inauguration speech).

A good friend of mine forwarded this article to me and I had to share it, since it appears that the national media hasn't picked up the story. Californian is 18 and homeless... and headed to Harvard University on a full scholarship! (Read it: Here. She attended a new school almost every year of grade school, sometimes not even finishing the whole academic year, yet she graduated with an almost perfect grade point average and was accepted to more than 20 colleges, including Ivy Leagues' Brown and Columbia.

I hope to see her life story on the small or big screen one day and she makes lots of money from the royalties because she deserves it.

If her story of determination doesn't move us to drop all excuses and move full steam toward our goals, I don't know what will. Then, if we all move forward with a common goal and collective resources, I believe anything is possible. But, it starts with one. I wonder how many of her classmates and other readers she has motivated with her story. Now that's a question that isn't to hard to figure out.

Shanida Smith Carter is a television producer and writer in New York City. She also teaches college courses on the Latin American and Caribbean Diaspora. She lives in New Jersey with her husband. .

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