Meet the Characters

Malina is a high achiever and is encouraged to take honors classes. Trevor, who wants to be a musician, doesn’t particularly like school and takes low-level courses.

Malina says: “While I’ve gone to Sparks High, I’ve taken really hard classes, like honors classes and AP classes. The teachers have always really been demanding and given us quite a bit of work.”

Trevor, on the other hand, says: “School is pretty lame. I do what I had to do, you know. Just get through it.”

The goal is to help students like Corey, who will benefit from more individualized attention from teachers and from the influence of better students. It’s a tough year for everyone. Corey is placed on the “jeopardy” list, for students in danger of failing. But Corey’s teachers pour on the extra help — the kind that goes to only the better students in some schools — and devise plans to motivate him.

By midyear, he’s actually becoming interested in school. “In English we started like poetry and stuff and I always looked at poetry as being kind of stupid and stuff and kind of, just, not for me, but... Miss Jamison, one of my other teachers... she brought fun into it...”

Mohammed has always wanted more. He knows how hard and how long his father works and has always imagined his own life would be different. “He works like a robot, a horse, or whatever. He is non-stop. I can't work like that. It is not about laziness. It is about just wanting to have a better opportunity in life.”

At Vanguard, the students are poor, from the inner cities, with weak foundations in reading, writing and math. But nearly 92 percent graduate, compared with 20 percent of those who graduated from the large comprehensive high school that used to occupy the building.

Luisa Colin is training a group of Latino parents to go out into their community and convince other parents of the importance of college. “Students... they cannot do it on their own. A counselor can help at school and so can the teachers, but at home they need a role model. They look up to their parents and basically, they do end up doing what the parents want.” Luisa teaches parents and students to respond to doubts about college with the answer “¡Sí, se puede!” “Yes, you can!”

Carisa acknowledges she could do more, but isn’t pushed in school. “You know, you can put on a happy face and then someone would think that you’re doing good, you don’t need more. But I could have done more. I just didn’t want to do more.”

She is accepted to Bowling Green University.

It also altered the expectations of 13-year-old Antonio. Struggling and without adult supervision, Antonio found it a challenge just to make it to school. With Project GRAD, Antonio’s schoolwork improves, his interest in poetry is nurtured, and with the help of caring adults, his life begins to stabilize. Now he wants to go to college and study mechanical engineering.

“There’s nothing really out there in the street for me, and if I want to make it big, I have to take school serious and I have to focus on more about my schoolwork and education,” Antonio says.

The program addresses concerns about isolation; it encourages its students to support each other and reject negative stereotypes. It also offers role models and the guidance to keep students in college and working to their potential.

Douglas Robinson discusses accusations of “acting white” when he did well in high school. “From my black peers I received pressure... that was negative... when I talked proper and when I earned A's on my exams... they really felt as though I wasn’t a part of their crowd.”

Ada Ndubuizu, a bright, ambitious student who grew up in suburban Maryland and who wants to pursue both a medical degree and a doctorate in immunology, feels the weight of being a minority in her classes. “I was sitting at a lab meeting the other day, and I realized that I was the only African American female in my lab... and I never really put much thought into that before, but then, it’s like I’m setting an example here. And you know I need to continue this trend where more and more minorities are coming into labs and becoming scientists and so it is important, it’s really important.”

Michael Hunt, in the second semester of his sophomore year, is struggling with his classes. A fiercely intelligent young man, Michael is the pride and joy of his church in downtown Baltimore. He is behind on some of his course work, but the Meyerhoff program swoops in, to be sure he gets back on track. “It is extremely important for me to graduate from college. It’s something that my mom had to give up because she had to raise myself and my sisters. Then my little cousins and little sister, you know, all look up to me, so you have all these people who are looking to me. It like puts that pressure on you, but you know this is what you need to do.”

Kenny Gibbs, who spent a recent summer in a lab at the Harvard Medical School, talks about expectations of him as a black man: “We’re eight times more likely to be in prison than white males. We’re much more likely to be unemployed, you know, that’s a societal expectation of me as a black male.”

For students who sign on in middle school, take college prep courses, keep a “C” average, and agree not to smoke or drink, the program promises to pay their tuition at any Indiana state college. Two of the Fahler kids immediately sign up, and now one of them plans to attend medical school.

Joy Fahler says of her children, “The benefits are, they have the opportunities. They may choose to come back to this town; they may choose to move on. But, they have those opportunities now. They can do what they want.”

Her husband, Butch Fahler, sprays crops in Pulaski County Indiana, where he grew up. He says: “When I look back at how I didn’t care about education at all, it’s just amazing that they have gone this far and want to keep going.”

Vanessa is a bright single mother who is overwhelmed trying to navigate the educational system alone. English is her second language. “To be a first-generation student is very important for me. It means a great honor and also it helps me... to pave the road for future generations, like my son. I really want to be like a role model for him and I want him to see that if he really wants to, he can get a higher education.” While she's determined to attend UCLA, she has not received the support or information she needs to transfer.

Vanessa needs guidance. Oscar needs academic support.

Oscar Hernandez works full time while struggling to keep up with his classes. But, he's getting help from The Puente Project, an intensive prep program designed to support Latinos and other historically underrepresented students while they earn four-year degrees. “By getting a college degree, my life will be different because I am going to be able to get a job I want, make money, buy a house, not live in poverty, and get the skill with that education of being able to communicate with other people.”