KENNESAW, Ga. | Sep 22, 2025

Moving into a college dorm marks the beginning of a new chapter for many students. For Amorie Calixte, moving into his college dorm marked an even more significant turning point in his young life.

Calixte, a third-year criminal justice major in the Norman J. Radow College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Kennesaw State University, was previously among thousands of college students across the country experiencing homelessness.

The Hope Center for Student Basic Needs’ 2023 – 2024 survey report included responses from 74,350 students across the country. According to the data, forty-eight percent of those students reported experiencing housing insecurity, while fourteen percent reported experiencing homelessness. Those numbers reflect students who allow themselves to be seen.

Calixte hasn’t always allowed others to see his story. He lived with his aunt and cousins until the sixth grade, when he went to live with his mother. “I just kept my mom sane. That’s the best way I can put it,” Calixte said. He can track his interest in criminal justice back to middle school. “I had a scare and realized that I never want to go to court again, and it also made me want to... learn about the system.”

Radow College offered a path to learn about that system. Calixte initially commuted to his classes but switched to carpooling with his best friend when his car broke down. He lost that transportation option when his friend switched to online classes. “I ended up just putting all of my classes online, and I am not an online student,” Calixte said.

By the fall semester of his second year, his GPA fell to the point of losing financial aid. Calixte said that’s when he started leaning heavily on his faith.

“When I had lost my financial aid and other stuff, I was like, I feel like I’m doing all this by myself. So that’s when I was like, hey, I need to lock in. So that’s when I locked in with the big man upstairs. So, when I had locked in with him... stuff started feeling like a burden off my chest because in the Bible he says... your burdens are not yours to carry. Like, you can give them to me,” Calixte said.

He credits that faith with helping him keep going. His family was evicted from their home, and life became a series of uncomfortable moves. “I was kind of like, house-hopping and like, I’m sleeping on the floor for a while.  It was honestly a lot,” Calixte said. “I couldn’t even... shower all the time. Like, I was losing a lot of weight too... I was losing body fat and muscle mass because... I couldn’t really eat...regular, how I wanted to,” he continued.

During all that upheaval, he was still trying to make it to school.

Judy Allen, Ph.D., a principal lecturer of sociology in Radow College, met Calixte in the Spring 2025 semester when he took her Intro to Sociology course. “When I have students that automatically go to the back of the classroom, I focus on them more than I do on the ones... that sit in the front,” Allen said. She described Calixte as reserved and soft-spoken.

“He was so young, and I didn’t see a young man in his eyes. I saw a much older person that had gone through a lot, and I just didn’t know what. But looking down at his shoes, and looking at his clothes, and seeing things that made me feel that he needed help, I knew that I needed to befriend him even more.” Allen said.

Allen became Calixte’s mentor. Once he trusted her with his story, she was able to connect him with a variety of campus resources, from financial assistance to food and housing.

Lauren Padgett, the director of Campus Awareness, Resource & Empowerment Services (CARE) at KSU, was one of those resources. She has dedicated her life to getting students the help they need. She advises everyone on campus to remember the power of asking, “Are you okay? What’s going on?”

“We can say to faculty and staff, hey... if you have the student, don’t feel like you need to give them the resources, send them to us. Walk them down here,” Padgett said. CARE Services also offers consultations to faculty and staff who are unsure how to start that conversation.

“We’ve had professors before, actually in Radow, who... suspect that there is at least one student in the class who may need basic needs type supports, and so they take a class field trip to the pantry,” Padgett explained.

Padgett’s team helps students in a multitude of ways, including through the campus food pantry and the Emergency Assistance (EA) program.  According to Padgett, CARE Services received 946 EA applications in the 2025 academic year. Of those applications, 250 of them came from Radow College students. CARE Services had the means to fund only 55 of them.

“We’ve got three emergency beds on campus that are almost always full, and then when we... have the donor funding and the need then we can put students temporarily in hotels. These emergency housing supports are not state funded, so they are completely dependent upon having donor funds available to be able to support,” Padgett said.

Calixte took that support and ran with it. He made the Dean’s List for the Spring 2025 semester and is working to make the President’s List in the future. He proudly showed off his dorm during the reporting process for this story. His enthusiasm for life is obvious, and he credits his faith with helping him change his life.

“Pray. God [has] got your back. Like, we’re [going to] make it regardless. So just go do it,” Calixte said. 

Calixte hopes that other students will hear his story and learn about the options available to them on KSU’s campus. He also hopes that they realize they aren’t alone.

“There’s no shame. Like, there’s literally no shame in wanting to ask for help. Put that pride to the side,” Calixte said. “Don’t be scared to show your heart. Don’t be scared to be vulnerable. Don’t be scared to obviously put your best foot forward. Don’t be scared to want to live.”

--Story and photos by Noelle Lashley