As the daughter of a struggling single mom, Chantel Waterbury had to fight for her education.
“My mom was a creative woman but struggled to hold a job due to health-related issues,” Waterbury, now 40, tells PEOPLE. “We were on and off welfare my entire childhood.” Still, she found herself in private school since her older half-brothers (whose father was wealthier) attended.
Eventually, it became clear to the school that Waterbury’s mother couldn’t pay her way. “I started to realize that there were things – good grades, good deeds – that could keep you in school,” she says. She started cleaning classrooms and tutoring younger children to pay her tuition.
When she received a scholarship to a prestigious high school four hours away from her childhood home, she knew she had to find a way