When a teacher becomes a parent

Robert Hurley was born in New Port Richey, Florida, where he spent most of his childhood in a two-bedroom trailer. His mom was a drug dealer, and his dad was a drug addict. When Robert was six, his father left the family. By the time Robert was a freshman at Boca Ciega High School, he'd been living in a St. Petersburg foster home and was being asked to move away. He mentioned this to his geometry teacher, Amy Krusemark, and everything suddenly changed for the better.

"It seems pretty preposterous that someone so sweet and loving would be in a system so long," she thought. As a foster parent herself, with two empty room at home, she approached Robert and told him, "I want to help you be you." She soon became his legal guardian, and he moved in. Since then, things have worked out pretty well. Now 18, Hurley has a 4.6 GPA and was valedictorian of his graduating class. He's received FULL-RIDE scholarship offers from Yale, Stanford and Duke, and has chosen Stanford. All because his geometry teacher did more than teach. She loved.