Tyisha Higgins excels in her AP American Government class. She has loving brothers, a sister in law who cares, and darling nieces. This family unity is even more remarkable because Tyisha’s parents have both passed away.

When Tyisha's father died in 1996, it sent the family into an economic tailspin. Things got so bleak at one point Tyisha and her brothers lived in an abandoned house. But with no rent and their mother's income from housekeeping jobs, they were able to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads. Just as the family was getting stabilized, Tyisha's mom, just forty years old, died of breast cancer.

Tyisha’s brother DeMarcus, got a hardship discharge from the navy-leaving behind his dreams of becoming a naval officer. He returned to raise his brothers Stephen - an aspiring rapper, and Damien who recently followed DeMarcus into the navy. Tyisha was just beginning 9th grade. Her high school counselor is amazed by her success considering what she has gone through. And her supervisor at the after school program where she tutors calls her the “cream of the crop.”

Tyisha works as a tutor because she has to. She and her younger brother survive on social security survivor benefits. There is no money. That's why the Students Rising Above scholarship meant so much to Tyisha’s who wants desperately to go to college. She plans to stay close to home and study nursing.

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