(beeping)
(tense music)
Downloaded from YTS.MX
(sirens wailing)
Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX
(car horn hooting)
(students yelling)
- [students] We fight, and fight, and fight!
(students chanting)
We are graduates, we are graduates, we are graduates!
(audience cheering)
- So who's graduating today?
Our trailblazers are graduating today, right?
On this day we recognize and witness
something really unique here in the heart of The Bronx.
Young boys that have made a commitment
to spend seven years at Eagle, and graduate as young men.
So at this time I'd like to acknowledge Mr. David Banks,
the Eagle Academy Foundation staff
for all of their support and commitment to our young men.
Brother Banks.
(audience cheering)
- You're gonna hear a lot of congratulatory remarks
and speeches, but I wanna just leave you
with some real talk.
Young men, you are stepping into a world
that doesn't care for you.
You need to hear that.
You are stepping into a world with all of your gifts
and your talents, and your beliefs, and yourself.
You are stepping into a world that does not believe in you.
You are going to face challenges each and every day
in a world that doesn't see your promise or your potential,
and even if they saw it, could care less about it.
That's real talk.
So I want you to remember this.
In spite of all of those things,
anybody who really knows me,
knows that my greatest hero of all time was Muhammad Ali.
And Muhammad Ali had his title taken away from him,
and he had to come back after three and a half years
and fight for the title again.
And on the day that they came in, and Ali said, "What?
"The champ is here!"
And everybody sat there, and wait a minute,
"You don't have the title, George Foreman has the title."
And Ali said, "I never said I was the titleholder.
"I said I was the champ."
There's a difference.
You are gonna have to lead your life in a way,
when you get knocked down, you hear that in your spirit,
"The champ is here."
You're not supposed to stay on the ground.
Always remember, when challenges hit, the champ is here.
Repeat after me young men of Eagle Academy,
the champ is here!
- [Students] The champ is here!
- Oh, I can't hear you, that's not gonna get it done!
Those are just words!
I'm talking about from your spirit,
because nobody else will be able to say it for you.
What are you gonna say?
- [Students] The champ is here!
- [David] I can't hear you!
- [Students] The champ is here!
- [David] I can't hear you!
- [Students] The champ is here!
- [David] You need to be up!
- [Students] The champ is here!
- [David] What you say?
Who's here?
- [Students] The champ is here!
- Eagle Academy, you're all that, the world needs you.
We love you, we believe in you.
The champ is here, God bless you.
(audience cheering)
(dramatic music)
I got the greatest story that has never been told.
And it's the story of the empowerment,
the uplifting, the transformation of young men of color.
And it's a story that if it's told right
can help to lift young men and school systems
all across this nation.
(sirens wailing)
One of the things I can tell you
as a person who's been in education so long,
that we have been watching young men of color,
and primarily African American boys
who are completely under assault.
They're under assault from the forces in their community,
whether it be gangs.
They're under assault from the low expectations of teachers,
very often who don't know how to work and manage them,
and get the best out of them.
They're under assault, very often,
from the police who fear them.
They're under assault in their own families
with fathers who deserted them.
And then they're under assault from the media,
which rarely shows images of positive young men
and positive men of color.
And I don't think any of these things are by accident.
But in concert, they work to serve to undermine and to keep
young men from ever truly believing in themselves.
My good friend Shawn Dove who is the head of the campaign
for Black Male Achievement, he had started this periodical,
and he decided to focus on my father and I.
So you'll see the picture, and I was the principal,
and that's my dad.
My dad was the ultimate role model for me,
and what I learned and I got from him
ultimately became part of the very fabric
of what I tried to lead with
in the experience at Eagle Academy.
And now today we have six schools
and almost 3,000 young men across our schools.
- Over 900 alum.
- Over 900 alum, yeah.
So we've come a long way.
When we started the Eagle Academy back in 2004,
there was a report that Columbia University put out
which said that 75% of the inmates
from the entire New York State correctional system
came from seven neighborhoods in New York City.
That's just unbelievable to me.
75%?
It's bad enough if you said that 75%
of the prison population for the entire state of New York
came from New York City.
And then when you couple that with the fact
that the graduation rate for black males in New York City
at that time was only about 32%.
That's seven out of 10 young men are not gonna make it
even to high school graduation.
And then what happens to them?
They don't disappear.
They find themselves engaged
with the Criminal Justice System.
How many more of these negative images and stories?
We can do better than that.
We have the potential to do better.
We know better.
But we just have to fight for change.
Eagle is a part of that fight,
and that's what I stand on each and every day.
(sirens wailing)
(school bell ringing)
- [Teacher] Good morning, Academy!
- [Students] Good morning, sir!
You know what, we're gonna rabble this up
before we get up for the Pledge.
The loudest house today will get 30 points.
Lee Rivera, please give me your ear.
For Ali House, that's down here, a little cute.
Mandela House!
- [Students] I was born to rule!
- Schomburg House!
- [Students] Retrieve the past, create the future!
- Schomburg House!
- [Students] Retrieve the past, create the future!
- A lot of people don't believe
that you should have a single-gender model
in a traditional public school.
Because on it's face what that means
is that your daughter can't attend this public school.
So you as a taxpayer who says,
"My salary, my taxes are paying the salary
"of the teachers in that school, and by definition
"my child is excluded from going to that school."
They see it as unconstitutional on its face.
- Sixth grade, I am?
(students chanting)
- Level one, you guys.
Gentlemen, let's appear for our wonderful day
of learning today academically,
and let's support one another.
(school bell ringing)
- Very often, left to their own,
schools select the highest performing students.
The students who are really eager to learn,
and are not gonna present a problem.
Everybody chooses the path of least resistance.
It's natural.
- Our first entrance activity has to do with data analysis.
- Black boys who are behind academically,
they are the demographic that everybody is trying to avoid.
'Cause they don't make your numbers look good,
they can be a real handful, even for the best of teachers.
Nobody's running to save these young men.
- And it doesn't matter what career you have--
- That is the population that we have asked for.
That's the reason we were created in the first place,
because we see the promise and the potential
in each and every one of them.
(sirens wailing)
- Growing up in the South Bronx,
in the summer it is hard to tell the difference
between fireworks and a gunshot.
A lot of people believe that,
"You're from the South Bronx.
"You're not gonna make it, you're not gonna go to college.
"You're not gonna be what you wanna be."
My name is Joshua Perez,
born and raised in the South Bronx my whole life.
Growing up in a one-parent household.
My dad left in the fifth grade.
Didn't do a lot of things in my life,
but it hasn't stopped me from getting to that one goal
in life to make it and going to college.
- [Mother] You're ready for baseball today, right?
You know you got a long day.
Where's the game at? - It's all the same areas.
I still remember the day in sixth grade.
My mom is like, "I'm gonna put you in a all boys' school."
And then she would always tell me,
"You're not gonna understand it, why now,
"but trust me, when you get to that step,
"when you're about to graduate,
"you're gonna understand why."
I thank her so much.
- [Mother] You sure you wanna go to Nazareth Still?
It's six hours away, you wasn't scared?
- No.
It's something I wanna do.
If you wanna be a brain surgeon,
you can't be scared of things like that.
(car horns tooting)
Coming to Eagle Academy since the sixth grade
is really a phenomenal opportunity.
Where we all come from, we're not privileged,
we're not gonna have everything.
You're gonna have to put in that extra.
Eventually as you get older, you grow off of it,
and you use it as your motivation.
You wanna get out.
You wanna make a change, especially where you came from.
(door squeaking)
- We have become numb to the fact that our children
are not being educated.
And we feel as though it's just
the course of doing business.
No other ethnic group in the city would have
become accustomed to the lack
of education of their children.
- I'ma try.
I know I can't--
- The Brownsvilles, our Liberty City in Miami,
south side of Chicago.
You see the same patterns.
The failure of educating people of color.
But the real tragedy and the real betrayal
is not so much how poor they do in school,
but it's the amount of money that is spent.
Particularly here in New York City,
we spend approximately $26 billion a year on education.
The goal in many of the big cities
is not educating children, but protecting
the historical flow of that money.
When a child isn't educated, those outside consultants
and institutions that come in and give the same material
that has proven to be a failure,
they continue to make millions
of dollars over those contracts,
when year after year they are failing, something is wrong.
(bus engine whirring)
- Nazareth College was my number two choice, and I got in,
so I just took the opportunity and I said I'm going for it.
It's hard to say that I'm actually leaving.
Sometimes when I think about it,
I'm actually gonna be in college in a few months.
(lock clicking)
So this is the Eagle Academy's emblem.
It has like the doors showing like opening,
you're being welcomed going in.
And it has a bridge, like a pathway of success.
You're gonna come to the Eagle Academy with open doors
and lead out on this bridge that's gonna give you
better and bigger opportunities
to be able to success in life.
And then of course the eagle right here.
Eagles fly high.
Then the Eagle Academy right in the middle,
just to represent the school.
Yeah, this emblem right here means a lot to me.
- We are living in a global society
that needs these young men to be productive,
to contribute to the tax base.
You cannot in this country have such a significant
part of the population be so thoroughly marginalized
and think that this nation will be able to continue
to compete at the highest level globally.
Most teachers who have gone and been trained
in schools of education across the country
haven't received one day of training
in what it means to work with young men in the classroom.
- Remember, shirts that are not tucked in,
you get a one point deduction.
- [David] What your voice should sound like,
what the lighting should be in the room.
- And we say.
(students speaking foreign language)
(students clapping)
- And then there's the rituals, traditions, the ceremonies,
that's about building your sense of self-worth,
and your confidence, and your ability,
and your belief in yourself.
And we know those things are important.
They're important in gangs.
Every gang has their own colors,
and they have their own pecking order,
and they have their own traditions and symbols.
And boys are drawn to those when they don't have
the benefit of a more positive paradigm
for them to be engaged in.
We've said, "This is our gang,
"and we're gonna make sure that you're part
"of something that's positive and leading
"toward a positive and promising future."
(car door slamming)
Listen, we always need more teachers
and support staff to do this work.
You go to South Korea, you have to graduate
in the top 1/3 of your class to become a teacher.
Teachers there are referred to as nation builders,
because that's really what it takes.
You need great teachers in the classroom.
You have smart people,
particularly smart people who have some other experiences
that they can draw on to bring into the classroom.
You're kidding me, that's the winning combination.
(school bell ringing)
- I've been at Eagle Academy for going on 11 years.
One of the challenges being
in a city public school is resources.
It's money.
So for an educator to see 75 students in a day,
really it kind of stresses how deep you can go.
So oftentimes when I'm sitting with teachers
who come from private schools,
and they're like, "Oh, I have to grade 20 papers."
I go, "I have to grade 75."
Oh my goodness. Tell them how you know me.
- [Student] You were my first teacher in Eagle Academy.
- He's the very first sixth grade class
who are now graduating.
These are the babies, these are the babies.
Oh, full ride?
- Yeah.
Even now, when I tell people, especially you.
- [Crew] What was Josh like as a student?
- Smart, brilliant.
There was no doubt in my mind this class
was going to be the class, and they are.
They absolutely are.
And they have faults, and they have growth,
which all our children do, but to hear that.
- Dream come true.
(Lakia sighing)
- That's a Lotto ticket.
No bills after you graduate.
- Nothing. - Nothing.
Being in the classroom for 15 years taught me so much
about who our young man are and what they need.
And the biggest lesson for me is about relational learning,
that our boys succeed and thrive in communities and villages
where they are building healthy, strong relationships
with the educators, with support staff.
Anyone who's in the building that touches them
needs to understand how to build, maintain,
and restore relationships with our children.
- There's a mission here that not only attracted me,
but attracted, I think,
every single person that's in the building.
There's something about being unapologetic,
about supporting the social-emotional and academic growth
of boys of color that I think is not present in every place,
in every school building.
And so for me, that was the best part.
That was the work.
I knew that the work was gonna be really difficult,
or have the potential to be really difficult,
but I wanted more than anything to just be unapologetic
about the work that I do for kids.
I think one of the challenges
is when my six foot seventh grader leaves, all right?
Because when someone sees him on the street,
they don't see that they're 12.
That can be nerve wracking,
because there's archetypes that people have built
around boys in particular, right?
Sometimes we don't acknowledge that.
The child needs to have that ability to be upset and to cry.
We tell boys all the time, "Don't cry.
"Man up."
What, no.
He's 12.
(chattering)
- 68% of black boys today growing up
without a father at home.
We try to stand in the gap, and all too often society,
when our boys get it wrong, blames them.
And they've not had any real, true role models.
Healthy, strong, good men
to help them understand how a good man is supposed to walk,
and talk, and conduct themself.
That's what we try and do.
(gentle music)
- So my name is Christopher Davis.
I'm in the first graduating class
of Eagle Academy for Young Man, 2008.
I'm here now and giving back,
speaking to young men of color.
Speaking about my equal experience.
Speaking to educators about what it takes to work here,
because I think that's important too,
to understand the mentality of a Eagle student.
I grew up in NYCHA housing.
I think that's important to have someone
who experience the same things that you experience,
and not just with school.
- In life.
- In life, the financial background, the financial burden.
- Growing up, my dad, he was there.
Not all the time unfortunately
things happened between mom and dad.
- Ivan, I'm on my way out.
- I had a few challenges.
It was my 12th grade year, I lost a loved one,
and just to even come to school to be here
eight hours a day, and for the people like Mr. Banks.
School was there for me, he was there for me.
And to make it to Columbia University and to graduate.
I'm the product, as well as my brothers.
- America has been sliding for years
in terms of our standing academically.
I talked about this idea of how you make sure
that young men aspire to go to college.
Hard to do it if you've never been to one.
Bringing in college reps from schools,
making sure we're bringing our alumni back
so that they can tell the stories.
And just how fun and exciting it could be
to be on a college campus.
All of those things make a huge difference.
- So my role as director of college counseling
for Eagle Academy is to work with the students,
so that they understand the entire college-going process.
Because they may love a school, but if they can't afford it,
or if it doesn't make sense in terms
of how much a school costs and the amount
of loans you have to take and the so forth,
it can be a problem.
We set it up so that they have options across the board.
Look here, so these are just the emblems
of the mascots of the various schools,
who some of them I visited.
When I first designed this room,
students didn't hear any of the schools
with the exception of the big names.
But this wall here is where my students from last year,
we had students at each of those schools.
Oh, what about LIU?
Didn't you do LIU?
Brooklyn? - [Student] Brooklyn, yeah.
- Last year, for this particular school,
was our first graduating class.
We had about 93% of our students,
our young men went to college.
About 98% were accepted to some college,
be it two year, four year.
I really wanna instill in them
that this is who you really are,
and this is who you really can be
as you move forward in life.
- Looking at this picture, I remember,
I believe this was convocation in sixth grade.
I'm here, I have no face hair, look at me.
It's on a lot of business cards, it's on the books.
It shows Eagle Academy.
Everybody here in this picture
I'm still very close with today, we talk on a daily basis.
Right here we have Kenley McKennis,
plays on the basketball team.
Jayden Wood, and we have Rashid.
We're all gonna graduate this year.
(alarm beeping)
- Oh, Joshua when he was a baby, he was very hyper-active,
but a fun kid.
Fun kid, he was very fun.
I miss those moments.
I wish I could rewind sometimes.
My son has been at the Eagle Academy since sixth grade.
Soon he'll be going away to college.
It's gonna be tough for me.
Six hours away?
That's my only child.
As much as I can, I will make it over there.
Pop up visits.
- It's like a dream come true.
I always told you when I was in the third grade,
fourth grade, when I go to college,
we're not paying for nothing.
I always told you that when I was young,
so guess what happened now?
It's reality.
- Your dream came true.
- The most thing that I'm proud of is being able
to see him graduate high school, and get his diploma,
and move on, and become what he always
wanted to become as a kid.
- [Crew] And why is that so important to you?
- Because I didn't do it.
I wasn't able to finish school.
Excuse me.
I didn't have the support of my parents
as much as I am involved with him.
And I'm glad that he's gonna finish.
- When you are dealing with the weight of life,
it is really difficult to navigate
the complexities of the Department of Education
or City Services to give your child holistically
what he or she really need.
- Joshua Perez.
How you doing, kid?
- In the affluent areas of our community,
the moms and dads, they already know what college
their child is going to attend.
They know the level of math that he would need
so that he'll be able to get into a nice,
Ivy League school.
It's already mapped out.
Our children get to the end of the journey and say,
"You're supposed to have that pre-algebra
"back when you were in elementary school."
So we are starting off with a lack of information,
and we have to create a easy free flow of information
to empower parents on how to be parents.
- [Teacher] One, two, three, four.
(upbeat music)
- So good morning, my name is David Banks,
and I am the president and CEO
of the Eagle Academy Foundation, good morning.
- [Audience] Good morning.
- So we're here today in Brooklyn because this is
the kickoff event for what we call the Brooklyn Nine.
We have selected nine schools
throughout the borough of Brooklyn
that we are gonna be working with over the next three years
to really share with them the best practices
for how to work with our boys.
It's the kick off for something brand new,
to see if we can take the Eagle model
and then translate that into existing schools
that are not all boys' schools.
And I'm betting that is gonna work.
(upbeat music)
So many things that we need you to see and understand today,
but I think it's important that you understand
who we are as the Eagle Academy,
and what that means for the young men
who we're gonna be working with throughout this program.
Let me make it very plain.
Black and Latino males throughout America,
they're under assault through the media,
they're under assault from politicians who talk a good game,
but don't do anything to actually make a difference,
and it shouldn't have to be that way.
So my organization decided
we were gonna do something about that.
There's a transformation process that must take place
if we want them to properly transition
into healthy, strong young men.
And that process begins today.
(gentle music)
We're gonna be working with the teachers
in nine schools across Brooklyn
to make a significant impact in the lives
of our young men and our boys every day.
(audience applauding)
- The Brooklyn Nine was a great concept,
but whenever you're attempting
to see how well your product is,
you should go to the toughest audience.
Brownsville is the ground zero of education failure
and educational betrayal.
And if we could find success in Brownsville,
then the product could operate anywhere in the entire city.
- The young men of Eagle Academy, please stand.
These are the young men who are gonna be the mentors
for the middle school boys.
They know how to stand strong.
They will give you a firm handshake
and look you in your eye.
And we're gonna make sure that we transfer
all of that to your son.
(man yelling)
- I'm happy, is y'all happy to be here?
- [Students] Yeah!
- I'm happy, is y'all happy to be here?
- [Students] Yeah!
- Hey listen!
- 25 young men in each of these young schools,
and they're gonna be mentored primarily
by older Eagle students.
Either students who are seniors or are alum
who graduated and are in college,
who are just a few years older than them
but have lived the Eagle experience.
- These are young men that were quiet in there.
Quiet, right?
Slouched down, right?
But now you'll notice that their body language will change.
You'll notice that they'll become more talkative.
The confidence will start to come.
And when they come back into the auditorium,
you're gonna see something very, very powerful.
- I know elected officials all over New York City,
and they all would say to me, "This is great,
"you're doing great work, keep up the good work."
Borough President Adams was the only elected official
who said, "This work should be spread across New York,
"and I'm going to the mayor to make sure that that happens."
Please give him a really, really warm welcome,
brother Eric Adams.
(audience applauding)
- When I sat down with David and said,
"How do I duplicate the Eagle Academy experience?"
He made it clear, "We need money, Eric.
"We need money to train teachers, to train our team."
We were able to identify $3 million for him
and start the program of educating
a team outside his team to give other students
the Eagle Academy experience without having to sit in
an Eagle Academy school.
- I guarantee you you will see the difference
between your son today and what will happen
over the next three years, if you make sure
that you support us in doing that.
- In this poem, Invictus,
"I am the master of my fate, the captain of my soul,"
the most powerful lines of the poem.
We want young men to understand, look,
no matter how many teachers said,
"You can't learn, you can't do this, you can't do that."
You are the master of your fate, captain of your soul.
It's a great, great start to a great program, gentlemen!
We'll see you shortly.
(drumming music)
- Eagle mentors!
Form the formation!
Invictus straight!
- [Students] Out of the night that covers me,
black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
for my unconquerable soul.
- Brothers, are we ready?
- [Students] Born ready!
- Brothers, are we ready?
- [Students] Born ready!
- [Teacher] Minute by minute, hour by hour.
- [Students] As we grow our story, we grow our power.
- So give yourselves a round of applause, young brothers.
Let's give your mentors a round of applause.
Let's give your parents a round of applause.
(students applauding)
And we are embarking on this journey together.
(tense music)
(school bell ringing)
(students laughing)
(basketball thudding) - Just get it out of the way.
Are you ready?
Hey!
- You grabbed my arm and pull it down!
That's a old school move!
- Hold on.
Yeah!
- Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
how charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.
- Yeah, that ending is just like.
It motivates me, I can't wait for my graduation.
I wanna see that same thing you saw.
I've been in Eagle Academy from sixth grade
all the way to the 12th grade.
And this is the first graduating class
to ever come through these seven years, man.
- We are in a special place right now.
We have a opportunity to really impact a whole generation.
I'm proud to be a Eagle alumni,
and I'm proud to be a member, a brother of Eagle Academy.
(chattering)
- Just because I'm a person of color,
just walking through the street, or I'm on the train,
or I have a hood on, that's already an assumption.
I wanna go on a path where I can go to college
and to see from there.
One day when I'm older, and I'm where I'm at,
that's gonna be my motivation.
Those things that were said to me when I was younger,
those assumptions that were made,
all those videos that I saw, all those comments.
I'll let that be my motivation.
I was like, okay.
Just in my head, I'm like, "Okay, one day you'll see."
I don't have to say anything,
I'm just gonna let my actions speak.
- Ali House!
- [Students] I am the greatest!
- [Teacher] Hughes House!
- [Students] Dreams deferred, never!
- [Teacher] Hughes House!
- The Eagle Academy that has gone from a school in The Bronx
to now in every borough in New York City?
Our work goes beyond our traditional schools
that we have created.
And I'm talking about beyond all boys' schools.
I'm talking about in traditional schools, co-ed schools.
And we think that in helping those teachers,
we will be able to help hundreds of thousands
of young men of color all across the country.
We're gonna teach a man how to fish.
- [Teacher] I'll see you on Monday.
- [Christopher] Josh, hit me up.
All right, bro. - Bro.
- Listen, I'ma see you when you graduate.
I'll be there.
I'ma try to get some front-row seats.
- Our goal must be to ensure that we implement
long, sustaining partnerships.
How do we partner with our faith-based institutions
to be part of our educational experiences?
How do we utilize our civic groups and local groups,
our precinct councils, community boards,
NWACP, urban leagues.
How do we put in place those institutional changes
that no matter what happens in Washington, D.C,
it would not impact Washington Avenue in Brooklyn.
We will be still moving forward with our overall plan
of making sure that every child
receives a quality education.
Thank you.
Listen, let the Dean's Team know we're gonna meet.
In the morning.
Ali Seventh grade, you're dismissed.
- I don't think there's anyone that says like,
"We just don't want good by them."
I think people just are paralyzed, like,
"I don't know what to do."
So we choose to disengage.
And we get to lean into that discomfort as a school
and say, "We're gonna take it on,
"and we're gonna smile while we do it.
"We're gonna grow our guys."
(gentle music)
(car horns hooting)
(sirens wailing)
(students cheering)
- This is the value of a teacher
who looks at a face ad says, "There's something behind
"that I wanna reach that person.
"I wanna influence that person who is behind that face,
"behind that color, behind that language,
"behind that tradition, behind that culture."
(students chattering)
- Yeah! - Yeah!
(students cheering)
- I came into Eagle with these guys,
so they were sixth graders.
They were short, didn't have facial hair.
And now I'm looking out at them, and I'm just like, "Wow."
It means that eventually seeds prosper and they grow,
and they turn into something
that you see down there, and I'm glad.
So I'm excited.
I'm excited to see the program,
and be here just to watch.
- [Students] Out of the night that covers me
black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be.
- Class of 2018, you can be seated.
As you leave, remember that you're leaving
understanding that this community is going to support you
even when you do leave those doors.
Your Eagle brothers that are next to you
are gonna be with you every step of the way.
(students yelling)
- [Announcer] Mayan Perez.
(audience cheering)
Tapir Donovan.
(audience cheering)
- To see our young men,
I'm gonna try not to get emotional.
To see our young men that I know,
they're story could have ended another way,
and to see them thriving means the world to me.
We plant seeds, but we don't know that we'll ever
see the fruits of our labor.
(students cheering)
- [Announcer] Joshua Perez.
- [Rosa] Yeah!
Go Josh!
(audience cheering)
- [Announcer] Mark Anthony Barton.
(audience cheering)
- [David] Good afternoon everyone!
Good afternoon Eagle!
- [Students] Good afternoon!
- This world is changing on a daily basis.
You've got to work harder than you could have ever imagined.
But you have the talent, and the gifts, and the abilities
inside of you that you can go off,
and no matter what happens in this world,
you're gonna be one of the game changers.
I believe that.
I don't just say that.
I believe that.
That's the reason why we do this work,
because everywhere I see young men like you,
I see promise, I see potential.
I see young men that if we don't get you
to be where you need to be, this world will never be
where it's supposed to be.
- [Rosa] I'm happy crying, I'm so proud.
- You're gonna make me cry.
- [Rosa] I knew you could do it.
- Who has a camera?
Take your camera out, there you go.
- There we go, here we go, here we go.
Y'all getting in it, right?
We ready, all right, right over here.
One, two, three.
- Education, it is an ocean liner.
We have to slowly turn that ocean liner around
and this is the starting point.
And if we can show that the successes here
were tangible results,
then we could force the city to duplicate it,
to turn it the Brooklyn 90, the Brooklyn 900,
and really the Brooklyn educational system,
and New York City educational system.
(gentle music)
- A phrase that I use often for the young men
that I speak to, is that I tell them
that they are truly unique to the universe.
There are people that have your name,
there are people who look like you, they sound like you,
but they're not you.
They don't have your fingerprint.
So find your destiny, fulfill your destiny,
and you are to manifest the potential
for which you were brought here in the first place.
And I believe that,
and I try to make sure that they understand that,
and they see the uniqueness, the greatness
that they have inside of them
so that they can take that and run,
and go on and be all that they're supposed to be.
(gentle music)