“What I went through helped me become who I am today,” says Rachael, now in her first year of college. “It made me want to do better for myself.”
Vocabulary emotionally: in a way that affects a person’s feelings possession: the state of having or owning something addiction: a harmful need to regularly have something devastating: extremely upsetting valedictorian: the student who has the highest grades in his or her graduating class 4
Scholastic Action | May 5, 2014
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She Never Gave Up on Success
page 4: Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune; page 5: Courtesy of the Pillot Family
Rachael grew up in poverty with two parents in jail. The odds were against her. But she found a way out—through school. Rachael Pillot was 7 years old when police came to arrest her mother. It was 2001, soon after Rachael had finished kindergarten. The officers handcuffed Rachael’s mom in front of her. Then they pulled her mom up the stairs of the family’s basement apartment in Chicago, Illinois. Rachael and her little sisters couldn’t understand why their mom was being taken to jail. “We were all just standing there crying,” remembers Rachael. “My mom was crying too. She didn’t want us to see her like that. I could tell by the look on her face.” The girls went to live with their grandmother. Rachael helped care for the others— giving them baths, doing their hair, making breakfast. Caring for her sisters emotionally was harder. “They were crying all the time, asking what had happened to our mom and when she was going to come back,” says Rachael. “I
didn’t have the answers.” She wiped away her own tears to be strong for her sisters. “I couldn’t show them that I was sad too,” she recalls. “I said, ‘We’ll be OK. Everything will be all right.’ ”
Missing Mom and Dad Rachael’s mother was sentenced to a year in jail for drug possession. That same year, her father was also arrested on drug charges. He was sentenced
to three years in prison. But after they got out of jail, both of Rachael’s parents still struggled with drug addiction. Rachael and her sisters stayed with their grandmother. Then, when Rachael was 11, her dad disappeared without so much as a phone call. For years, she didn’t know where he was or even if he was still alive. Not having support from her mom and dad was devastating for Rachael.
Rachael (in glasses, back row) with her four younger sisters
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“But I learned a lot from my parents,” she says. “I learned what not to do.” Rachael dreamed of a better life for herself and her family. In eighth grade, she decided to start working as hard as she could in school. Education would be her path to a brighter future.
Rachael hugs Xavier Tirado, who also won a scholarship, at the Posse Foundation office in Chicago.
Late Nights
Friends and family came to show their support when Rachael (in white) went to prom last year.
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Scholastic Action | May 5, 2014
“Then I would do my work,” she explains. “I’d go back to sleep probably around 12:00 or 1:00.” By 6:30 a.m., she was up again, getting ready to go to school. All those quiet hours of study paid off. Rachael was her class valedictorian when she graduated in 2013. She also won a full college scholarship from the Posse Foundation, a group that
gives money for college to some students who need it.
A Happy Future Now 19, Rachael is in her first year at Oberlin College in Ohio. She plans to become a doctor and hopes to inspire others to succeed too. Says Rachael, “I tell my little sisters, ‘Don’t be just like me. Be better than me!’ ” She talks more with her parents lately. “Even though they had their problems, I still really love them,” says Rachael. “I used to be so mad, but I have forgiven them. That helped me a lot—I’m happier.” Rachael says that people don’t expect much out of kids from her community. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t prove them wrong,” she states. “Don’t ever let someone tell you that you can’t do something, because you can.” —Sarah Jane Brian
Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune (Top); E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune (Bottom)
At times, focusing on schoolwork was easier said than done. In the evening, the crowded two-bedroom apartment she shared with her grandmother and sisters was noisy and full of activity. That made it hard to study. But Rachael found a way to carve out quiet time to do her homework and read. She would come home from school at 5:00, eat, and go right to sleep. She’d wake up at 9 or 10 p.m., when the house quieted down.
