Aden’s Next Step

After leaving Mercersburg’s campus for good,  McCracken temporarily moved in with his biological father and mother, before eventually moving to Montana for the remainder of the summer.

McCracken applied early decision to his first choice school, Dartmouth, but was deferred. He was also placed on a waitlist at Brown University and Stanford University.

He was accepted into the Leadership and Character Scholar program at Wake Forest University, which he planned to attend in the fall of 2021. 

However, in mid-June McCracken was shocked to receive an email from Stanford informing him that he would be accepted on a full scholarship.

“I was in shock. To think one of the world’s top universities could accept someone like me was unbelievable. Maybe it’s weird to say this but, at that moment, I wasn’t really proud of myself. I was so overwhelmed by the idea that someone like me, someone who started at the very bottom and was held in the grip of the great adversity faced by my community and people, could persevere and make it so far,” said McCracken.

“At that moment, my mind was devoid of any thoughts surrounding my accomplishments, struggles, or journey to this point. All I could feel, think, and embody was hope. Hope for the addicts in my life. Hope for my family. Hope for the children of addicts around me. Hope for my sisters. Hope for the ignored, the abandoned, and the forgotten.”

McCracken plans to major in public policy with a possible minor in economics or mathematics. He would like to use his life experiences and education to be a voice for those affected by addiction and poverty and advocate for them and their needs. 

He is currently in his first quarter of classes at Stanford and is excited to explore the opportunities in this next chapter of his life.

“My life has been difficult, yes, throwing me in and out of situations that have taught me more in seventeen years than I thought I could learn in a lifetime. But, so much beauty and growth have come out of the adversity I have faced. I spent so long trying to avoid the turmoil of my home life by investing myself in school and running away from everything, and in the end, I found myself back home,” said McCracken. 

“Life is never absolute. Everything around us and within us changes, moving us in and out of new landscapes to foster internal growth; and, in the end, we revolve, finding ourselves back where we began with a new appreciation for the most meaningful, yet complex, idea we all know: home.”