Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop honored a city teenager who was recently accepted to 17 of the 18 colleges to which he applied.

Dylan Chidick, 17, and his family were formerly homeless. He lived in Jersey City’s York Street Projects after his mother left Trinidad with her children in 2008. But she lost her job in New York and they couldn’t afford the rent in Brooklyn.

The nonprofit group Women Rising helped to find them an apartment and some stability.

Fulop presented Chidick with an award for not allowing difficult times to keep him from getting a scholarship at the College of New Jersey.

The Henry Snyder High School senior recalled when he learned about his acceptance to the college.

“I was surprised because they called me to the principal’s office. I rarely ever go in there so I thought I was in trouble. But then I saw TCNJ and I didn’t know what to say. I was shocked, so I’m just happy that they were able to come down and personally give it to me,” he says.

Chidick says that he wants to major in political science and hopes to become a lawyer.