Aurora Sky Castner was born inside a prison in Texas.
Her mother was detained that day and never took care of her. It was her father who got her out of there as a newborn and raised her alone, without help, without a support network. Everything began to change in elementary school, when Aurora joined a mentoring program and met Mona Hamby, a woman who became her maternal figure. Hamby discovered a girl who read nonstop, admired Rosa Parks, and whom she described simply as brilliant.
She opened doors for Aurora that she had never crossed before, such as a summer camp, and that closeness made all the difference. She graduated third in her class at Conroe High School, won an anti-drug speech contest, and received a $2,000 scholarship. In 2022, she visited Harvard with her mentor and fell in love with the place.
Her admission essay began with a sentence that summed it all up: “I was born in prison”. Today, she studies Law there on a full scholarship.