From Rio slum to Yale: community college student wins full ride

Thalles de Souza grew up in Vila Kennedy, a favela in Rio de Janeiro where shootings and dead bodies in the street were routine. In March 2016, police raided his home and nearly shot him. Three months later, his mother moved the family to Cape Cod, Massachusetts, with savings and loans she had quietly accumulated. De Souza attended a local community college to save money, earning perfect grades while serving as student body president and on the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education. He applied to Yale knowing the acceptance rate was 1.3%. When the email arrived, he called his mother and sister into the room. He got in – with a 100% full-ride scholarship. “Where I came from didn’t determine where I could go,” he told Business Insider in an as-told-to essay. He starts at Yale in September.