Frankeli Baez

Frankeli lived with his family in the Dominican Republic until his mother decided to move them to Miami in search for a better life and more opportunities. While mom worked 7 days a week at a nearby McDonald’s, Frankeli was in charge of his younger brothers; taking them to school and preparing their meals. Unfortunately, Frankeli’s mother lost her job and the family struggled with homelessness as they moved around, stayed in motels, and sometimes had to sleep in the car. As a result, Frankeli began to struggle with depression and often felt unworthy. Instead of making bad choices and dropping out of school, Frankeli looked for solutions and found a part-time job at Wendy’s and requested to work as many hours as possible to make ends meet. He also became part of the Project UP-START Program which provides assistance to students with unstable housing. Throughout it all, Frankeli maintained excellent grades and effort in all his classes and has missed only one day of school this year. Frankeli is a student who does not allow hardship to hold him back and instead chooses to focus on persevering every day.