LaToya Washington was the mother of four small children and in an abusive relationship when she finally had enough and left, even though it essentially made her homeless. Three years later, she was walking out of an Augusta Housing Authority meeting with a scholarship check for $2,500.

Classmates of Glenn Edward Newman Jr. might not know he was raised in Olmstead Homes, but they know they wanted him as their senior class president. Now, he is on his way to Emory University to study economics with a $2,500 scholarship in hand.

The two were honored at the monthly meeting Thursday of the housing authority's board. Chairman Rodger B. Murchison praised Mr. Newman as a mentor and influence on others at John S. Davidson Fine Arts Magnet High School.

"This young man is a standout at that school," Dr. Murchison said.

Public housing often has a negative connotation in people's minds that doesn't reflect the reality he sees every day, Mr. Newman said.

"If you really experience what it is, it's really not bad at all," he said. "It's not peaches and cream either, but it's really not as bad as people make it out to be."

He said he believes it is his personal motivation that has helped make him a success.

Olmstead Homes "has made me who I am today, so it is not a totally negative thing. There are things that are positive when you take advantage of the opportunities you are presented with," he said.

There really wasn't much more Ms. Washington had to lose in late 2005. After living with a verbally abusive man, "my confidence was gone," she said. A bad car accident totaled the car she had just paid off, and she got little back in insurance money. She gathered her children and left for the Safe Homes domestic violence shelter.

"They helped jump-start me," she said. Eventually, she got a Section 8 voucher to start a new home for her children and enrolled in Augusta Technical College to become a medical assistant, a sort of do-everything assistant in the medical office.

"She is, I would say, dedicated," said Medical Assistant Instructor Shannon Henninger. "She's trying to better herself and be self-sufficient."

At times, Ms. Washington said, she has been surprised at her own strength.

"A lot of that I was able to brush it off and still push on," said Ms. Washington, whose mother died when she was 8. "Nothing can hold me down. If something knocks me down, I leap back up."