If you haven’t heard this story, you really need to.

For most students the road to an Ivy League education starts with a strong emphasis on academics in the house, dedicated teachers and good study habits. Throw in a robust SAT score and you just might make it in to Harvard.

But that wasn’t the road Dawn Loggis traveled.

After bouncing around from school to school following her mother and step-father, she was abandoned altogether. On her own she took a job as a janitor at her high school. Through it all, she worked hard, made the grade and now she’s headed to one of the most elite schools in the country.

The best part of her story, Dawn’s out look on adversity:

“A lot of people use bad situations as an excuse,” she says. “But I used them as motivation.”

Watch the story here, then ask, what are we doing to help our kids value an education? Even without such a tough road to travel, do Utah’s students consider an education something of as much value as Dawn does?