High school senior Leslie Nevarez and her family are celebrating her next stop - Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Nevarez overcame several challenges to get accepted into Harvard University, her dream school.

The acceptance was the end of a long journey that started in Matamoros.

“I had great difficulty comprehending what was being taught and the content overall, and unfortunately that cost me to repeat the fourth grade,” Nevarez recalled.

In the sixth grade, Nevarez enrolled at IDEA Schools, where she said ceremonies there broadened her dreams. Nevarez ended up applying to 30 colleges and universities with the help of her IDEA teachers and a Princeton University summer journalism program.

Four Ivy League schools were among the 18 acceptance letters she received. Nevarez said her family paved the way to her success. She wrote about her sisters and her mom in her Harvard application essay.

“I wrote about the importance of seeing girls and women as equals and appreciating their efforts in society and acknowledging them as well,” Nevarez said.

Her mother, a widow, said happy to see her hard work bear fruit.

“We never expected this…but we know she'll do well,” Nevarez’s mother – Pilar Paulin said.