Dylan Chidick and his family battled many challenges. His younger twin brothers has a heart condition that required surgery, his mother lost her job, and the entire family became homeless but through it all, Dylan stayed focus in school and his goals.

“The situation that my family has been through, I don’t want it to define me,” Dylan said.

Dylan Chidick, 17, has been accepted to 17 colleges. He is class president at Henry Snyder High School in New Jersey, and was inducted into the National Honor Society when his family lived at a homeless shelter. Now he has a list of schools to choose from, including Xavier University, New Jersey City University and Rowan University.

“There has been a lot of people saying, ‘you’re not going to achieve this.’ And me, getting these acceptance letters kind of verifies what I have been saying, that I can do it, and I will do it,” he said. Dylan also said that he is the first in the family to attend college.

Mom Khadine Phillip credits non-profit Women Rising with providing a safety net for her family and for her son’s future.

“Once you have that housing stability in place, then families are able to work on their goals to improve their wellbeing,” Anne Miller-Christensen, a member of the Women Rising management team, said.

Dylan is very happy with the 17 schools that are interested in him but he’s still holding out for one more, “The College of New Jersey I haven’t heard back yet but that is my top school right now,” Dylan said.

See CBS for the full interview.

Now that Dylan has accomplished this goal, he is now working on a new one…law school. Congratulations, Dylan! We’re so proud of you.