A full time caretaker by day and a full-time student by night, 24-year-old Precious Brown is a busy woman. "I think Precious works 10 times extra hard than you and I would. Precious pays her own bills she rides the bus halfway to her job and then she rides the bike the remaining way," Brown's mother Vaneta said.

Brown's journey to womanhood was anything but easy. Her battles began even before birth. "Precious was a premature baby she was born weighing 2 pounds, 12 ounces," said Doris Bass, Brown's grandmother.

Given her slim chances for survival, her family was happy to have her alive. But, that happiness didn't last long.

"She went to all her checkups received all her shots and no one told me anything about she couldn't hear. I used to question her doctor," Brown's mother Vaneta said. 

Doctors couldn't pinpoint what happened or when she lost her hearing but at four years old, Brown was diagnosed legally deaf.

"Our whisper in one another's ear is the loudest Precious can hear," said Vaneta Brown.

Even after three surgeries and more than 50 visits to the emergency room, Brown still suffers from chronic and costly ear infections.

"No Medicaid no SSI, you can't visit a doctor because you don't have money," said Precious Brown.

Despite her desire to help out her family financially, steady employment was a long shot.

"She really can't hear you if she's not facing you, but a lot of customers don't know this so that kind of hindered her," Brown's mother Vaneta said. 

Of all of the barriers Brown's faced she says her biggest has been fighting to be understood. A battle she says is both mentally and emotionally draining.

"I've seen a lot of hard of hearing or deaf people depressed, because society does not understand the disability that they have," Precious Brown said. "Hard of hearing deaf people are not stupid. We may be a little hindered or slow but it takes basic communication," Brown said.

The Lead Institute, a local advocacy group for the deaf, says that due to the communication barriers deaf college students experience depression more frequently than hearing.

From evangelizing in church groups to serving on an international student council, Brown hopes that by facilitating more dialogue between the deaf and hearing she can not only confront stereotypes but teach others how to cope.

"I'm thinking with her not being able to hear it has given her a drive to want help people more than just herself," Brown's mother Vaneta said. Brown says she's not just an advocate for the disabled but anyone else who feels defeated.

"My dream is to set someone else free from hurt, from pain," Precious Brown said. "As intelligent as I am smart, funny, cute, I feel that people need to embrace life no matter how hard it gets because if I can overcome so many obstacles, problems, struggles, being African American being a woman being hard of hearing wearing hearing aid, you can do anything," Brown said.

Doctors tell Brown that at anytime, without notice, she'll eventually lose her hearing. But for Brown, overcoming adversity is like second nature.

"It's not a matter of being super woman, it's a matter of saying I know who I am as a young lady, as an individual, internally and externally, you have to learn to build on that confidence," she said. 

Confidence that surpasses circumstances, and dreams that outweigh disabilities. Brown's family plans to meet with doctors to see if her hearing can be saved before she loses it completely.