Youth defies odds to graduate from college

SAVANNAH - Edward Milton had no business graduating from college. <br> <br> Abandoned by his father and forced out of his mother&#39;s home by poverty, Milton&#39;s prospects looked bleak. But Saturday he walked down the aisle with the 415 other gradates of Armstrong Atlantic State University -- a miracle of hope and hard work. <br> <br> Milton ignored the odds, defied fate and found a way. <br> <br> The product of a poor Savannah home, Milton&#39;s father abandoned him by the time he reached high school. The boy then moved out of his mother&#39;s house because there just wasn&#39;t enough to go around for all four children. <br> <br> Milton ended up at Temple Baptist Church, where the music had always made him feel welcome. He found a home there, first with the Rev. Steven Corley, then with church pianist Janice Meaders. <br> <br> When he graduated from high school, he decided to try college. <br> <br> Financially it was difficult. There were times when Milton held down three jobs so he could scrape together tuition money. <br> <br> His hard work paid off, though. He did well in his classes, was elected to the student government and interned with U.S. Senator Max Cleland&#39;s office last summer. <br> <br> Before he left for the internship, he wrote his estranged father an emotional 10-page letter, vowing to succeed in spite of him. <br> <br> Milton said that during his internship in Washington, he was inspired to go to law school with the goal of returning to Savannah to try to make a difference in his community. When he got back from his internship, he took the first step by getting a job as a filing clerk at a local law firm. <br> <br> On Saturday, Milton became the first in his immediate family to graduate from college, earning a bachelor&#39;s degree in political science. <br> <br> Milton&#39;s family was there to cheer him on, along with the church family who helped him along the way.

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