JULY, 2013: About three weeks before he was scheduled to leave for Washington, DC to attend Howard University as a freshman physics major, JAMES WARD found out his Parent Plus loans were declined for the year-due to his family's poverty and recent homelessness. After seventeen unanswered messages to the HU Financial Aid Office, James's mentor, JESSICA SUTHERLAND, a producer who was also homeless as a child, came up with a Hail Mary, last-chance idea: start a Tumblr blog, and hope to get some attention via social media, until they found a lender willing to take the risk of funding a bright kid's education.
The blog and its hashtag, #HomelessToHoward, quickly went viral, and the end result changed the lives of both James and Jessica forever.