This fall, Justin Rendon will board a flight bound for Northwestern University, thousands of miles from home, becoming the first in his family, and the first in recent memory at his school, to attend college out of state. He’s heading there on a scholarship that covers nearly all expenses, with plans to study neuroscience and one day become a neurosurgeon.

At Valley Oaks Center for Enriched Studies in Sun Valley, where Rendon is student body president, university banners from Harvard, Cornell, Berkeley and Penn dangle from the ceilings of the main office and hallway— a reminder of what’s possible.

More than 90% of the school’s 400 students, from grades 6 through 12, are economically disadvantaged. But throughout the school, college banners remind the students to reach for the future.

Rendon has turned that vision into a reality.

He said students at his school are sometimes expected to stick to a modest path: attend a nearby state college, stay close to home, and “do the most you can,” rather than dream higher.

“They never told me to go out of state. They never told me to do the stuff that I’m doing now,” the 18-year-old said. “Had I not had my drive and my passion to do the stuff that I did, it wouldn’t have led me to where I am now.”

A leader on campus since his freshman year, Rendon has long rejected the idea of settling for what’s expected.

“When you set standards on people, that’s because that’s the most you think they can provide,” he said. “I never looked at it that way. I saw a standard and I told myself, ‘How much more can I beat it by?’”

Rendon’s life so far is an example of that mindset. He spent his early childhood in Sunland-Tujanga, a neighborhood on the edge of the San Fernando Valley. As one of a few Latino students in his elementary school, he said he often stands out, and not always in a way that feels welcome.

“I was always the one standout kid where it seemed a bit odd for me to excel in the things I was excelling at,” Rendon said.

At home he was raised by a single mother until around age eight, when his stepmother entered his life. The three of them formed a tight-knit household in the Valley, where they were, as he put it, “quite literally the only family we have within each other.”

Growing up in a same-sex, working class household came with challenges. Rendon recalled moments when teachers and peers struggled to understand his family.

“Ever since I was little, I always had teachers question me as a person, (question) them,” he said of his parents. “And it always created this doubt within other people.”

It was his stepmother who first recognized his potential and pushed him to meet it—encouraging him to stay organized, believe in his strengths, and take pride in his intellect. It was during that time he realized he had a gift for math and a love for pressure.

“I like being told that I can’t do it, so that it pushes me more to finally achieve it,” Rendon said. “ When I was little and I saw different career options, being a doctor was always seen as one of the hardest things, and that’s something that I was always trying to pursue.”

That drive extended beyond the classroom. Rendon became a central figure at Valley Oaks, helping to organize pep rallies, running student events and becoming student body president and senior class president.

He also captained the school’s baseball team, where he helped the program earn its first wins in more than a decade, said Malcolm Thomas, a science teacher at the school and Rendon’s baseball coach.

“I think he is a guy who has so much integrity, and that is just something you don’t see in kids, let alone adults, every day,” Thomas said. “If  he says he is going to do the work, he does the work.”

Whether the baseball team was winning or losing, Rendon stayed ready, his coach said. He owned his mistakes, lifted his teammates and often pulled struggling players aside to offer support.

“That’s leadership,” Thomas said. “That’s the name of the game.”

That reliability, he added, is rare.

“As a teacher, I see kids so often looking for the easy way to do things,” he said. “He’s not always looking for the easy way, he is looking what’s the best way.”

In Sun Valley, just staying on track can be a challenge sometimes, Thomas added. Many students come from working-class households, often immigrant families juggling long hours and limited resources. For some, higher education isn’t part of the picture.

“Some of it is the expectation that, ‘Hey, kid, school’s not that important, just finish it, go work somewhere,’” Thomas said. “And some of that’s just that you have parents, that’s what they know, so that’s what they are preaching.”

He said that while the community’s work ethics can be a strength, it can also make it hard for students to imagine lives beyond what they’ve seen.

Thomas said pushing past what has become familiar takes real determination. And Rendon had it.

By his sophomore year, life became more complicated. His stepmother–the same person who had pushed him to realize his potential–was diagnosed with leukemia.

“It was tough going through my entire sophomore, junior, and even this year with that challenge,” he said. Seeing his stepmother “at her lowest” while making sure she was okay made it difficult to juggle school, a part-time job, and everything else on his plate.

But Rendon carried on, holding tight to the goal he refused to let go, to become a neurosurgeon and to create a better future for himself, his family and his community.

By senior year, his effort was paying off. Rendon had earned top grades, secured scholarship offers from several elite universities, including Northwestern, Vanderbilt and UC Berkeley, and was named valedictorian. In a few weeks, he’ll take the stage at graduation to deliver a speech to his peers.

He’s still thinking through what he will say. But at the heart of it, Rendon hopes his story leaves others with one message: “Even at the lowest, you can still prove that you can go farther, and you can do the most at whatever, wherever you’re set.”