His first job was that of a grasscutter with ex-convicts at the Simon's Town naval base after he had matriculated.
But Riaan Cedras has defied the odds, and has successfully completed his PhD degree in marine biology.
“What I'm trying to show people is that education can take you places and that you must never limit yourself, in terms of opportunities, especially educational ones.”
Growing up in poverty-stricken Lavender Hill, the 33-year-old Cedras never thought he would obtain the highest academic degree.
But on Tuesday he will be capped.
Speaking to the Cape Times yesterday at his parents' house in St Montague Village, where the sound of gunfire from gangs warring over drug turf is a daily occurrence, Cedras said it was a dream come true that he had managed to complete his studies.
Tracing his obstacle-laden path to his PhD degree, he said he attended the area's Zerilda Park Primary School, before moving to Wittebome High School in Wynberg where he matriculated in 2001.
Inspired by the ex-convicts with whom he worked as a grasscutter for a year, Cedras said: “They used to tease me and say I'm the most educated guy because I had a matric certificate, which at that time was seen as a coloured person's ultimate goal in education.
"They used to tell me ‘Riaan, you don't belong here with us’.
"That teasing made me realise there is more to me than cutting grass and earning that little money.
“I could achieve more in life and that's when I started applying at UWC (the University of the Western Cape) and Pentech (now the Cape Peninsula University of Technology).”
He studied biodiversity and conservation biology from 2003 for a BSc degree at UWC through a National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) bursary, followed by an Honours degree in 2007.
Cedras’s Professor Mark Gibbons then gave him a bursary to study for his Master's degree, exposing him to marine science and taking him to Namibia and Norway.
After his Master's degree, Cedras registered for his PhD degree in Indian Ocean
science research in 2010.
He explained that while he was doing his degree he did research in marine science, in the field of plankton research, becoming a specialist scientist.
As part of his PhD studies, he travelled to Norway, Seychelles, Mauritius, Indonesia, Mozambique and Reunion Island, and attended conferences in India and Poland.
“I want to be an expert in my field for the benefit of South Africa, but at the same time I'm also grappling with the idea of how to understand and uplift children from areas such as Lavender Hill.
“If you invest in a child from a young age, then it protects that child from choosing alternative bad role-models,” said Cedras, who teaches life sciences to students at UWC.