Flint Teen Hopes to Beat the Odds, Pursues Ivy League Education [VIDEO]

A local teenager has her sights set on an ivy league education and she's not about to let anything get in her way.

Latisha Jones currently attends Flint's International Academy. She's also taking a course at Howard University, a prestigious, ivy league school in Washington DC. Jones was recently featured in a New York Times article highlighting disadvantaged students who have the option of taking classes at some of the nation's top universities.

Get our free mobile app

“Being poor is just a mindset because we’re always rich up here,” Jones says as she references her head in the video below.

Jones tells WNEM-TV that her class at Howard has consisted of Zoom meetings, homework assignments, and class discussions taught by a professor and teachers' assistants.

She went on to say that some of her high school teachers have actually tried to discourage her from seeking an education at a prestigious school like Howard.

“A few that would say, ‘Oh Latisha you’re dreaming too big, you’re not going to be anything, you can’t even afford to think outside of Flint for college.’”

Jones says she's always believed in herself even when others haven't. Someone else who believes in her is Dennis Williams-Mitchell, her mentor with an organization called Wow Outreach in Flint. He was thrilled to learn that Jones had been featured in this article published by the New York Times.

“Remember her name and remember her face,” he said.