Death, Sex & Money - Why Rashema Melson Left Georgetown
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4.2 • 2K Ratings
🗓️ 5 April 2017
⏱️ 13 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When we met Rashema Melson during her sophomore year at Georgetown University, she was tired of people calling her "the homeless valedictorian." A lot's changed in her life since then.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, it's Anna. Something we do here at death, sex, and money is we stay in touch with people |
| 0:10.8 | long after they've been on the show, because that's part of the idea. The kinds of stories we tell |
| 0:16.6 | keep unfolding. They don't have an end. So today we wanted to bring you an update about |
| 0:22.3 | Rashima Melson. She was on the show in late 2015 when she was finishing up her fall semester |
| 0:28.0 | of her sophomore year at Georgetown in D.C. That episode was called Stop Calling Me the Homeless |
| 0:34.2 | Valedictorian. It's on our website at death sexmoney.org. |
| 0:54.3 | Rishima lived in a homeless shelter for three years before starting at Georgetown, and her story got a lot of press. When we talked in her dorm, she'd gotten tired of all the attention. It's always the list they have. It's like, oh my God, are you of Rishima? I'm yes, you were valedictorian. Yes, you were in a homeless shelter. |
| 0:56.5 | Yes. |
| 0:57.0 | Oh, my God. |
| 0:57.8 | And I'm just like, it's annoying sometimes because it's like, I wish you people would |
| 1:02.9 | just stop calling me that. |
| 1:04.6 | Like, I'm not the homeless valedictorian. |
| 1:07.0 | Like, I'm Rashima Melston. |
| 1:09.1 | Still out of that media attention, Rashima got a lot of support, including online donations. |
| 1:15.3 | She kept up a personal website, Rashima Melson.com, and she'd post occasional video updates there. |
| 1:21.4 | A few months ago, I was checking the site and found out she was leaving Georgetown. |
| 1:25.6 | I'll be leaving D.C. and transferring to a new school. |
| 1:29.6 | And I'll be living on base with my husband. |
| 1:32.5 | And it's a decision that I thought really long about. |
| 1:36.3 | And I felt like it was the right decision for me. |
| 1:38.8 | Rishima got married in April of last year to an old high school boyfriend. |
| 1:42.9 | And she left Georgetown that summer. |
... |
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