A 19-year-old teenager’s story of resilience has taken the country by storm. Reports say that Fred Barley, a homeless student, was found by police officers sleeping in a tent on Gordon State College in Barnesville, Georgia. When probed further by the officers, Barley told the heart-wrenching story of how he had ridden six hours on his kid brother’s bicycle from Conyers to Barnesville, armed only with two gallons of water and a box of cereal to eat, just to register for the second semester of college.

Instead of ticketing Barley for trespassing, the two officers carried the day by booking him a motel to stay.

“The stuff that’s happening with police officers, I am black and he didn’t care what color I was. He just helped me, and that meant a lot,” Barley said.

Word of the determined teenager continues to spread all over the country.

He has received various donations including clothes and food, even as the GoFundMe page created in his name sores in cash gifts of over thousands of dollars. Local pizzeria owner, Debbie Adamson, of DB’s Pizzeria, even gave him a dishwasher job.

The future seems astonishingly bright at the moment for Barley. The biology major, who sights his religious belief in God as his inspiration hopes to go to medical school someday.