let’s do this
Tomorrow’s leaders. sounds positive. i like this already
Letoya and Jeromy and BK and the salvation army. Journey for Change sounds awesome. Two weeks of volunteer work in South Africa will definitely give you some perspective. I hadn’t thought about travel building confidence before. Interesting concept.
OF COURSE THE BOYS DON’T WANNA GO. they wanna play basketball. and here go the stereotypes. his backup plan is to be a lawyer but he has bad grads. OF COURSE.
… and his father is in jail. and now we’re back in black in America 1.
I’m glad Malaak is looking at more than grades to determine who should come. As it’s already been stated, the drop out rate is 50%. We can imagine what the grades are like before these kids drop out.
poor Letoya
i love it. “You can solve the problems with a big ole check.” -Soledad. “No you can’t.” -Malaak Thank you. Throwing money at a problem does not solve it.
i like that she doesn’t give up on the difficult boys. Jeremy and Jonathan would definitely have been written off by a less patient and understanding person.
(wait why is the chris brown photo framed?!?!)
Sweet they are learning zulu. So they won’t be ignorant to this new culture. I love it. I really wish more kids could have an experience like this. I’m glad I got something similar when I was in college.
Competition is the way to get these young men out of their shells. I wonder how this concept could be expanded to get young black men to engage in other arenas *cough* education *cough*
I hope that these kids can understand that even though they have it rough in America, people have it much worse (and are still hopeful).
dang that was a long day
Jeremy’s father is in jail and Jeremy doesn’t want to talk to him. Reminds me of my brother. He gets that he doesn’t want to turn out like his father but doesn’t want to talk to him to understand where his dad went wrong. I’m glad that the father wants to be involved but it’s unfortunate that being incarcerated is probably a big reason why he’s in touch.
i hope that this experience stays with them when they come back to the states. i hope they can remain hopeful for their future. i hope they can appreciate what they have, even if it isn’t much. i hope they do a follow up so we can see where these kids are in a year or so.
but are these kids gonna see Black people who are middle class or rich or HIV- in South Africa? I mean, let’s show the real south africa.
a one year commitment? word? how will they serve others? something meaningful perhaps. aw they’re helping a south african girl. i wonder why they couldn’t help other americans. give back. i mean it’s good that they’re helping someone, but it would be helpful if they learned to help themselves.
so Jonathan improves his grades so he can get a basketball scholarship?!
And Jeremy is still not doing well in school. failing math and social studies and science. jeez. Malaak stop making excuses for his poor academic standing. All these experiences are not improving his grades. And now we blame the father in jail. It’s frustrating when children who have potential to shine don’t. Why doesn’t this show examine how to get Jeremy back on track?
And Letoya sores. I mean we already know girls are more likely to go to college, so we assume girls are more likely to gradate from high school. CNN, this is nothing new.
it would be nice if we could empower our kids on US schools.
I’d appreciate a switch to focusing on America now.
Steve Perry and CT. whoot whoot. oh wow a personal greeting each morning? wow. Capitol Press is impressive already. How did I not knw about this school. The details do matter. thank you. it’s important to have high expectations and hold students to them. “every child that goes to capital prep goes to college. period.” let the church say amen. with all that school, i can see why they have an 100% graduation rate. And the partnership is so important. it’s nice that they can get a sneak peek into college life. let them see that it’s not soo different.
yes standardized test scores do not predict college grades. thats been shown many times already. their grades in a college class is a much better measure.
kicked out of preschool? and now a principal. wow. “it just came to a point where it wasn’t cool any more.” a lot of kids don’t get to that point.
i’m glad to see a success story. thank you CNN. oh a MSW! holler!
“the only way to win is to play longer and harder than anyone else.” -Steve Perry. that motto could work for everything.
well it takes a lot of work to run a school like this. he wakes up at 4 and drives kids to school. this is crazy. that is dedication.
pubic school funding with a prep school attitude. i love it.
i had no idea the education gap was so large in CT. so sad and frustrating. you would need to go to school every day to bring kids up to their current grade level. dedicated teachers are important. it’s also important to give those kids of teachers appropriate funding as well though.
oh yes, parents do need to be involved. yes i know they are busy working but this is your kid’s future. make the time. and go to the freaking pta meeting.
wow he does all this and then takes care of his kids. dedication. glad to see a positive portrayal of a black father.
the principal as a father? i like the idea but i wish that the parents would be more involved.
arg now the drug abusing mom and alcoholic dad. arg. dangit CNN. so the principal saves the day and the parents just sit and chill? such frustration.
dang i’m stressed watching this interview. wow she is being so candid. she took abuse to protect her younger. and she got into college! yay.
that’s so unfortunate that her family gets in the way of her success. teens should not have stress like that. i’m glad she preserved in spite of her family drama. i’m glad that she had the support to succeed.
well at least we can see some middle/upper class black folks. this dude isn’t accepted anywhere. the black afluent. an inside look! the tuxedo ball. uhm lady be for real, it’s exclusive. and i guess that’s fine. but just accept it. of course racism affects rich black people, they’re still black! whomp.
Mia Jackson – changing the game? successful black woman. now we see where a mentor could have been very helpful. she was successful but didn’t know what to do next. so she quits her job to do an internship program so she can learn to become a CEO. John Rice is teaching these young people the skills they won’t learn in school. “You can never use race as an excuse or as a band aid.” preach. management leadership for tomorrow. wow.
step 1 – know your story
step 2 – articulate your goals/your passion
step 3 – build important relationships
they’re doing all this in 4 days? I’m confused. Is this an ad for this program or a documentary on Black in America? [this segment continues until 11] I’m glad Mia Jackson got into business school.
and now we’re talking about John Legend? i missed something.
final thoughts: This was ok. I’m glad that they showed some middle class and even affluent Black people. I wasn’t digging the rich kid’s ending talking bout “I didn’t ask to be born rich!” dude just stop right there, accept your priveilege and don’t act crazy. I like the focus on education and the things we’ll do to get it. Towards the end it really was an MLT commercial and I was not digging that. Maybe if they had shown other pre-professinal degree programs that would have made more sense. I don’t know. To be honest, it was just really random to me. Tonight’s segment didn’t really flow, i wasn’t really sure what was going on until the end. this segment was supposed to show who’s shaping future leaders. I guess that’s an interesting premise, but they should just change the title of the show because when i hear black in america i’m expecting something on black people in general. I think perhaps, this is CNN’s attempt to provide some solutions to all the problems they discussed in BIA1? Overall, it was pretty meh to me.
What did you think?
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Def. agree on the volunteer work piece. Such a good idea.
Yeah at first I was like, this is the same old same old but it has a twist.
this makes me sad.
Ah! on the girls v. boys. SO typical.
Seriously. She has a year with them. More needs to happen besides letting meet go to charity events and meet comedians. Those are good experiences, but if their grades sill flounder…
exactly. all this stuff doesn’t really have anything to do with their schooling, especially if they’re missing school to attend them. they need those college mentors to help them with their school work, something, sheesh.
Mentoring is SO key. So critical.
Also this -
step 1 – know your story
step 2 – articulate your goals/your passion
step 3 – build important relationships
They don’t teach you that in school.
mentoring is where we fall off. it’s actually really hard to find a good one and when you do, you have to be secure enough when they tell you about yourself, things you need to change, learn, etc to get ahead.