WCC grad goes from homelessness to Yale

VALHALLA – Wellington Mackey had never seen snow until January 2003, the same night he was evicted from his apartment in the Bronx. He found himself cold, alone and homeless.

It's not the story of how most people end up in the Ivy League, but 13 years later, the recent graduate of Westchester Community College is headed to Yale University.

"You come to that point where you have to decide: are you going to run back home, or are you going to push forward?" Mackey recalled. "I decided to push forward."

The Peekskill resident was recently honored with a Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship, which offers students who have completed their associate's degree up to $40,000 per year to pursue a four-year diploma. He found out in April that he had won the award, presented to just 85 students annually nationwide.

"The fact that he was selected out of so many students really speaks to his character," said Sandra Ramsay, Director of Scholarships at WCC. "His story and his academic record really resonated with the foundation."

It was not an easy road.

Not long after immigrating to New York at age 23 from his native Bahamas, Mackey found it difficult to pay rent. He returned to his apartment one day in January to find the locks had been changed. For the next few months — in the dead of winter — Mackey lived on the streets of New York. He spent nights sleeping on park benches or in subway cars, changing trains at the end of each line so he wouldn't get caught.

"It was scary because I didn't really know the culture much," Mackey said. "It was a difficult time."

He credits his success to the people who helped him get back on his feet, like an elderly woman with whom he connected through his church who let him live with her in exchange for housework, and the Westchester branch of Tri-State Installations, a company that builds out office spaces, which offered Mackey his first full-time job and where he now serves as general manager.

Mackey met his wife, Jessica, and became the father to two daughters, now ages 4 and 1. He founded a charity, Helping H.A.N.D.S. (Hunger And Need Distribution Service), in the Bronx to "raise awareness about the issue of hunger." The group works with local soup kitchens and to enhance food distribution networks.

Mackey began reading at a young age and excelled in the classroom, but dropped out of high school to take a job to help support his family. When he was homeless, he said, he would spend his days in local bookstores reading book after book.

In 2012, he received his green card and was able to finally pursue his dream of higher education. He was awarded the Kathryn W. Davis Global Community Scholarship at WCC, a diversity-themed scholarship that paid for his tuition.

He brought along with him the Helping H.A.N.D.S initiative, getting WCC students involved in its outreach efforts, and that relationship will continue after he leaves.

At WCC, Mackey said, he was able to hone his writing skills. He's written for literary magazines and presented at conferences on public policy. He's had lunch with Ivy League professors. He credits WCC economics Professor Farhad Ameen with encouraging him to apply to Ivy League schools.

It was his homelessness that led to Mackey's intended career path. At Yale, he said, he will be following his dream of studying socioeconomics — a dream his own lack of resources had prevented him from achieving for so long.

"I've seen people on the street, I've seen the devastation that poverty wreaks, I've seen the dichotomy in society," he said. "I really wanted to try to figure out how we could do a little better as a society."

He keeps in mind all the people who have helped him along the way, but also knows his own strong work ethic was part of everything he has achieved so far.

"I had hope and optimism," Mackey said. "And there's a big difference between homelessness and hopelessness."