PLATFORM : Daring to Dream

If these students were encouraged in some way to go on to college, then they would eventually excel in everything, including sports. But right now the problem is trying to get them to that point where they at least have the option of going to college after graduating from high school.

A bigger question is, why aren’t they graduating from high school? How to encourage them? I think it’s a combination of everything. I didn’t have that problem because I wanted to go on. But for a lot of my classmates, it was just a way of life--not going on. We have to change that attitude. Attitude is very important, and until we change that, we’re not going to have the rate of matriculation that we want in any ethnic group.

Attitude goes into the family and the culture, everywhere. And you don’t change attitude in a short period of time, especially when it has become a way of life. Right now, I think the way of life for a lot of these kids is the gangs, and that’s scary.