After years of living with no running water, electricity or basic resources, Dawn's mother and father left without warning - leaving her homeless and alone.
But rather than let this ruin her chances in life, the hard-working teen endeavoured to make the best of her situation, starting by becoming the janitor at her school, Burns High, to earn money.
Every day before and after classes, Dawn cleans the hallways, bathrooms and classrooms of her school, and is then taken in by various members of the local community who feed, clothe and house her.
So passionate are the staff at Burns High, that they even campaigned to get Dawn into prestigious Ivy League university Harvard.
And after her history teacher sent a moving letter to the college, she was accepted into the class of 2016 - with her tuition and accommodation paid for.
'This young lady had, unlike most of us, known hunger, she's known abuse and neglect, she's known homelessness and filth, yet she's risen above it to become an outstanding young lady' said her history teacher Larry Gardner.
Teachers at her school first became aware of Dawn's situation when she asked one of them for candles so that she could do her homework at night, as the family's electricity had been cut off.
But despite her difficult childhood, Dawn says it has made her more determined:
'I was able to look at all the bad choices….at the neglect and the drug abuse…and I was not going to have to ask myself am I going to buy food this month or am I going to pay rent' she said.
Watch the full story from CNN here: