Teen Born in Texas Jail Graduates Third in Class and is Heading to Harvard

A teen who was born in jail is graduating third in her high school class and is headed to Harvard.

Sky Castner received her diploma Thursday from Conroe High School in Texas.

She was born in the Galveston County Jail while her mother was incarcerated, according to the Courier.

Her father raised her as a single dad. 

In elementary school, she was paired with a volunteer in a community mentoring program.

That woman was Mona Hamby, the paper reported, and the two bonded over not having a mother in their lives. She helped Castner navigate things like her first salon haircut and getting glasses.

The two have remained close ever since.

Castner said, “Everything that Mona taught me was very valuable in the same way that everything that I went through before Mona was very valuable.”