Frontline (1983–…): Season 34, Episode 11 - A Subprime Education/The Education of Omarina - full transcript

HELP EVERYONE EXPLORE
NEW WORLDS AND IDEAS.

SUPPORT YOUR PBS STATION

- Tonight on - Frontline,
two reports about

education in America.

- The closing of ITT Tech
is affecting students...

First, for-profit colleges
and allegations of

fraud and predatory behavior.

- They were targeting the most
vulnerable and desperate people.

Frontline investigates
the rise and fall

of this once booming industry.

You have termed these
students that are signing



up for these courses as
"subprime borrowers."

- Yeah,
that's a fair characterization

of the types of students
that are being served.

And later, we've been
checking in on Omarinan Oa

since middle school,
where a dedicated group of educators

helped to turn her life around.

But even more amazing,
they stuck with her.

- No one in my immediate family
has graduated high school

and gone into college.

However, I believe I'll be the first
one, and they'll be

excited and thrilled and they'll
be proud of what I've become.

These two stories on
this special edition of

Frontline.

A SUBPRIME EDUCATION



In the spring of 2012,
Hollie Harsh and Brian

French were both homeless and
looking for ways to improve

their lives.

- We were addicted to
methamphetamine for a while,

and we ended up in a bad place,
going homeless in a tent.

And it was like
that for four years.

We just one day
said, "We're done."

We had enough.

- I had started getting online,
doing some research about

government grants, and I put in
my email address, phone number,

all the information
that they asked for.

Brian had stumbled on a
lead-generating website

that collects information
from visitors.

Within 24 hours,
they got a sales call from Corinthian

Colleges, one of the largest
for-profit schools in the

country.

He has a deep accent, and he

tells me that they will grant
me a decent amount of money.

And I thought,
"We owe this to the kids to move forward

in our lives."

The recruiter offered
Hollie and Brian money

if they toured a few branches
of Corinthian, including Heald

College in Concord, California,
which was near their encampment.

- I felt that, like,
we almost didn't have a chance to say,

"No, let's think about it."

And I do...

If I remember correctly,
it was only three or four days that

we started school after that.

- And you said to
them, "I'm homeless"?

- Yes.

And she was like, "Oh, that's
fine, a lot of our students are

homeless in the same situation."

In order to enroll,
Hollie and Brian signed up for

federal student loans totaling
$30,000, all to be paid after

they graduated.

But they had no money for
housing, so they simply moved

their tent and belongings to
a vacant lot next to campus

and began going to class.

- Welcome to my school!

Around 1.8 million
students are enrolled

in for-profit colleges across the
country, in mega-schools

like Argosy, DeVry,
and Grand Canyon University.

You've got $60 million invested?

I started reporting on this
sector back in 2009 during the

Great Recession.

How big can you go?

With unemployment up,
Americans were choosing to go back to

school in record numbers.

- Well, the irony is, Dylan,
that when the economy is tough

is when people actually look
to go back to school and either

upgrade their skills or maybe
complete their B.A., so...

Back then,
I had looked at the University of

Phoenix, one of the largest
universities in the world.

At its peak, Phoenix had
enrolled over 600,000 students.

I spoke to a former
high-ranking executive.

- For the first 15 quarters,
we broke records and earnings

every quarter.

And instead of starting classes
in September and January,

we started classes in January,
February, March, sometimes two

in April.

If we had more students
than we could handle,

we'll build another site
and handle some more.

We built campuses by a freeway
because we figured that's where

the people were.

So if you went by any major
freeway in the Southwest,

you're going to find a
University of Phoenix campus.

We put schools 20 minutes apart
because that's about as far as

people could drive at rush hour.

How much could a
college administrator

for University of Phoenix make?

- The sky was the limit.

I shouldn't say this.

I shouldn't say this.

It's a free country.

- I understand, I understand.

But it's boasting,
and I won't say it.

Well,
in terms of how much you made,

you did very well?

- We did very well.

I did better than
I ever imagined.

- Education stocks rallied
today, including Corinthian

Colleges.

In an otherwise flat
market, for-profits had

taken off.

- Education stocks are moving
to the head of the class today.

- $24 billion, that's how much
the biggest for-profit colleges

took in last year in federally-
funded student aid money.

- Not just a job
search; a journey.

Not just an interview.

For-profits were spending
big money enticing

students to sign up for loans.

- Whatever your business card
says, you're in the business

of you.

At the time,
ad costs rivaled those

of multi-national brands.

- Which university
revolutionized education

in America to reach
the working learner?

- You thinking about
going back to school?

- Yes.

- Excellent,
what are you thinking about going for?

The industry also employed
an army of salesmen

and recruiters.

- The for-profits need to
continually add students.

When you think about it,
for the University of Phoenix,

for example, in order to grow
on top of the folks that are

leaving, you've got to add the
equivalent of, you know, one

to one-and-a-half
Ohio States per year.

- To satisfy their shareholders
on a quarterly basis, they've

got to increase
their enrollment.

They have to aggressively
recruit marginal students.

- Because only one thing
counts in this life.

Get them to sign on the
line which is dotted.

- Glengarry Glen Ross.

It's that sort of a heavy
commercial environment in which

you say whatever you need
to say to close the deal.

The pressure to grow

encouraged dubious
enrollment practices.

Tami Barker was an enrollment
advisor at Ashford University.

They used to tell us,

you know, "Dig deep.

Get to their pain.

Get to what's bothering them
so that that way, you can

convince them that a college
degree is going to solve all

their problems."

- The problem is that for many
of these students, they think

they're talking to an admissions
advisor, they think they're

talking to someone with some
sort of ethical standards,

and they don't realize that
they're talking to a person

who is selling them something,
and that they might be

better off to just walk away.

Many students assumed they
were getting a quality

education and a useful degree.

- I love Grand Canyon and the
community that it represents,

and also the
Christian background.

- This school is just perfect.

It's night classes.

- I'm studying merchandise
product development, and it is

the coolest thing I've
ever done in my life.

I love it.

In 2010, the top
Washington lobbyist for the

sector told me it was all about
providing new opportunities.

- We educate the students that
traditional higher education

has given up on.

Traditional higher
education has become a very

socio-demographically elite
group of people, so the only

options lower-income students
and working adults have

is either to go to a community
college, some of them can go to

minority-serving institutions,
and our option is the third

option.

But for years,
for-profits had been charging

students nearly five times
as much as community colleges

and gotten the bulk of their
revenue, up to 90%, from student

loans and grants.

- This is the most heavily
subsidized private business

sector in America.

No one compares.

Defense industry, agriculture?

Don't hold a candle
to these boys.

- Hey ladies, you have to hold
the household down, right?

Why can't you get an
education for yourself?

You still can work,
you can still take care of your kids.

I did it, you can do it too.

But not all the promises
were paying off.

- The whole world opens up for
you, but you got to do

something right now.

You can't wait.

Back in 2010,
I met three students who had enrolled

at Everest, part of the
for-profit giant Corinthian.

They were hoping to become
nurses, but it wasn't going

according to plan.

- They said that we were going
to be making $25 an hour, and...

- $25 to $35, they told me.

So I was, like, "Okay."

And they're going
to find us a job.

- They're gonna find us a...

- They're going to place us.

- I got my license in December of
'09, and I've been on

countless interviews.

And they all ask if I've ever
been in a hospital, and I would

have to tell them we never
set foot in a hospital, ever.

We went to a museum of
Scientology for our psychiatric

rotation.

- Our pediatrics rotation,
we went to a day care.

- Oh, yeah, that was our PEDs.

We went to a day care.

After our report aired,
John Oliver picked up

the story.

- Job hunting might be a little
difficult, as students from a

Corinthian College
nursing program found.

- We went to a museum of
Scientology for our psychiatric

rotation.

- What?

Scientologists do not
believe in psychiatry.

- This is the next big
scandal in America!

Washington also started
paying attention.

- This sort of reminds me of
where we were two years ago

with liar loans and no doc loans
in the housing market, where

people started accepting people
who couldn't prove their income,

couldn't prove employment,
but we sold them a $450,000 house.

And in a handful of hearings,
some for-profits were

accused of employing false or
misleading advertising and using

illegal recruitment efforts.

- 15 of the 15 schools the GAO
investigated found instances

of fraud, deceptive practices,
or made misleading statements

to prospective students.

In this hearing,
they unveiled hard evidence.

- And if you can just sign
and date right there for me.

- Okay, now, I'm not signing
up for the school right now?

- Yeah, you're actually
reserving your seat.

- Oh.

I was hoping I could talk to
the financial people first.

- No, they won't even
let you back there.

- Am I on the hook
for the $38,000?

- The thing about those tapes
is that it was really hard

in the face of this evidence
to deny that there was

a problem there.

- You should be ready to make
the investment of time and money

necessary to get you to where
you should be at this point.

But you're not.

What are you really afraid of?

Congressional investigators
also found that

for-profit schools were failing
to prepare students for the

workforce.

- Too many of the students who
go to these schools are coming

out with nothing other than
big debt and no education,

no gainful employment at all.

In 2010, the Department
of Education attempto

regulate the industry by
implemg some new rules.

- We're going to start
with gainful employment.

But the department ran
into intense resistance.

- The lobbyists for the
for-profit industry and

unfortunately many members
of Congress challenged those

regulations,
critiqued those regulations.

- This so-called "gainful
employment" regulation is

another example of this big
federal government run amok.

- They were overwhelmed.

They ran into this withering
artillery fire of lawyers

coming after the administration
and beat them back.

- Well, they're doing
everything they can to screw up

education.

- The fact that the sector
has declared an existential

emergency around this,
the sector has every lobbyist

in town, former members
of Congress on its payroll

to defeat this, really kind of
speaks volumes about the level

of corruption and the kind of
feeding frenzy we're talking

about.

- when the House of
Representatives voted to

prevent the Department of
Education from implementing

tough new rules that could
deprive certain schools from

federal funding.

- former ventures:
Trump University.

It's been the subject
of increased scrutiny.

Today, allegations of
predatory behavior and negative

press continue to
dog the industry.

- The Clintons got filthy rich
off a for-profit university

that took advantage
of many poor people.

But since I last reported
on these schools,

a lot has changed.

- Are the for-profit schools
value stocks or value traps?

- One of the big losers
though, that was Apollo Group,

that operates the
University of Phoenix.

For-profits are no longer
the darlings of Wall

Street,
and enrollment is way down.

In San Francisco, I talked with
Trace Urdan, a banker who kept

buy ratings on several
for-profits for much of the last

decade.

They are into decline, why?

- Mostly market conditions.

The economy recovers and
everybody finds a job, and then

all of a sudden, you know,
that trade-off that said, "Well, hey,

wait a minute, why should I
borrow all this money so that

I can earn the same amount of
money that I can earn at Jamba

Juice?

That doesn't make any sense."

You have termed these
students that are signing up

for these courses as
"subprime borrowers."

- I knew that was
gonna come out.

Yeah.

They were subprime borrowers.

I mean, that's a fair
characterization of the types of

students that are being
served, right?

These are unsophisticated
students that have a great deal

of risk.

Now, that's not true across the
board with for-profit education,

but certainly when we're talking
in the context of Corinthian.

Corinthian.

That's the for-profit chain
that included Everest College.

It's the school those three
nursing students had attended.

We looked one of them up,
Martha Salmon, and found her living

in Southern California.

Martha had paid back the $28,000
she owed in student loans,

but at a cost.

- That was money that could
have gone towards my house

or for my kids.

It could have gone a
lot of different ways.

But I just wanted
to get rid of it.

Her degree from Everest
never resulted in

nursing work,
so she was forced to start over.

- I got my R.N.
from Citrus College.

It's a community
college in Glendora.

And from day one,
the start of that school was totally

different from Everest.

There's really no comparison.

For our psych rotation at
Citrus, the R.N. program,

we went to a psych hospital.

And we were there for four
weeks, and we were able to

interact with the patients.

We followed the nurses
while they gave medication.

It was at an actual psych
hospital; it wasn't a museum.

- And how much did it cost you
to get a degree from a community

college?

- My R.N. cost $3,000.

But the education that you
receive, the money that you save

is... there's no comparison.

Stories like Martha's
got the attention of,

California's Attorney General.

In 2011, Kamala Harris
started investigating.

- As we started diving into it,
it became clear that Corinthian

was engaged in extremely
predatory behavior and conduct.

And so we sued.

This morning,
my office filed suit against Corinthian

Colleges, and in what can only
be described as a for-profit

college predatory scheme.

A lot of what you charged
was that there was

a misrepresentation of
job placement rates.

- Absolutely.

Convincing students that if you
sign up to receive an education,

we will ensure you
will also get a job.

That was all, uh...

I'm gonna say a polite term:
that was wrong and inaccurate.

It was B.S.

- It was B.S.

It absolutely was.

Harris based her complaint
on interviews with

over 100 employees and students,
including Hollie Harsh and Brian

French, the homeless students
at Corinthian's Heald College.

- That's a pretty girl!

Hi!

Hollie and Brian had
dropped out of Heald

in their third semester,
but the bills kept on coming.

- And I was just like,
"How am I going to pay this?"

- Yeah,
we still got bills coming out.

They still want their,
what is it, $288 a month

that they want to get from us.

- For you.

- Oh, for me alone.

- Can you afford that?

- No, not really.

We're living paycheck
to paycheck as it is.

Kind of what I say I got from
Heald was a $16,000 t-shirt.

That's what we got.

Hollie Harsh, Brian
French, homeless, recruited

to sign up for government
loans to go to school.

Is that an extreme case?

Are they outliers?

- Anyone is a target.

They were targeting the most
vulnerable and desperate people,

people who felt that they
were without resources.

This was by their own
marketing materials.

How do you explain that
there are people that would

want to take advantage
of people like that?

- It's greed.

- Everest College is accredited
by the West Coast Commission

of Non-Accredited Schools.

You can learn anything.

Corinthian would fast
become the poster child of

predatory for-profits.

Videos lampooning Corinthian
flooded onto YouTube.

- You're probably just sitting
at home watching Maury.

I like Maury; I want to
know who the daddy is too.

Make a decision, make a choice.

You gotta call Everest.

You still here?

By 2013, California's Attorney
General would share her

findings with the
Department of Education.

Soon after, officials in
Washington decided to cut off

the flow of federal funds until
Corinthian could back up their

claims of job placement.

- The way financial aid typically
works, it's almost

like they give the institution
a credit card, and they can...

In anticipation of getting that
bill paid by the Department

of Education,
they can spend the money in advance.

What the Department of
Education said is basically,

it took away the credit card and
said, "No, no, we need

to verify your expenses
before we get reimbursed."

- I think we're in the peak
of the highest amount of worry

right now.

Trace Urdan was closely
monitoring the company.

He told me that for most of
the previous year, the CEO

of Corinthian, Jack Massimino,
was downplaying his problems.

- He would say,
"It's gonna be fine, you know,

we've put these things in place
and it's all gonna be good,

and you know,
the students are coming, trust me."

They're always extremely
optimistic, right?

So it's the job of people
like me to try to filter that

a little bit.

Did you ask that question?

"Are you defrauding students?"

- Well, no, I probably wouldn't
have phrased it that way.

Maybe you should have.

- Maybe I should have.

Maybe I should have.

I then asked him about the
Department of Education

withholding funds
from Corinthian.

- I knew something the
Department didn't know,

which was that withholding
that much cash from them would

precipitate a crisis, right?

So I knew that part.

What I didn't see coming was
that the Department would

actually do that to them.

Without the influx of federal
funds, top executives

at Corinthian saw the writing
on the wall and prepared to file

for bankruptcy.

- For-profit college provider
abruptly closes its campuses...

On the morning of April
26, 2015, thousands of

students woke up
to hear the news.

- As of today, school's out for
good at Corinthian Colleges.

It was the largest college
shutdown in history.

- Students are displaced
after the sudden closure of 28

Corinthian College campuses.

- School is over for thousands
of Southern California

students.

Students were left
wondering what would happen

next.

- Corinthian Colleges goes
under, leaving 1.2 billion,

with a "B," in federal
student loan dollars in play.

And the people who did it are
on their estates, are on their

yachts, enjoying the
fruits of their labor.

- That's one of the concerns.

These are federal loans
these students have.

So as a taxpayer,
why shouldn't I be concerned about this?

Officials at the Department
of Education were

trying to determine who
should absorb the loss.

- for all those students who
had gone through Corinthian

these last couple years.

- Well, exactly,
some of whom may be carrying quite a bit

of debt and, as we now know,
probably have very poor job

prospects relative to
what they were promised.

- There were so many
students, so many campuses.

There was no policy that could
really handle that sort of

scale.

Again, remember the times when
campuses had closed before.

We're talking, you know,
a few hundred students, right,

a couple of campuses.

And the Department of Education
would be on the hook for the

billions of dollars that those
students might have outstanding

in loans, and they were not
particularly enthusiastic about

taking on that sort of burden.

Instead of refunding the
students, the Department

midwifed a sale of 53
Corinthian campuses.

- What they told me at the time
was, "We were afraid to turn

loose on the economy,
or into community colleges and other

universities,
so many students at one time."

Too big to fail?

- Sadly,
that's what it sounded like.

I never bought it from the
start; just didn't make any

sense.

The buyer was a
non-profit specializing

not in education,
but in student debt collection.

Well, I don't get it.

I don't get it.

So this debt collector that
collects bad debt for the

Department of Education buys
a whole slew of Corinthian

Colleges?

- Yes.

With the Department of
Education, which is the

regulator and the enforcer and
the sheriff in town, actually

stepping in to broker the deal.

- We are Everest.

We are Wyotech.

We are Zenith Education Group,
a non-profit that's putting

students' success first.

The CEO of Zenith and the
General Counsel of the

parent company, ECMC,
agreed to sit down for an interview.

You raised a lot of eyebrows
when you made this deal.

You're a debt-collecting
company, but you're going into

the business of education in a
sector that is rife with high

debt load.

- Well, the ultimate proof
will be in the pudding.

Our goal is to make sure that
we can provide an affordable

education of high quality so
that when a student comes out

of one of our programs,
they have no more than $4,000

or $4,500 in debt.

We think that's affordable for
a job that pays 20, 25 bucks

an hour.

So are we there yet?

Not quite,
but we've made a lot of progress.

But your experience
was in debt collection.

What experience did you
have in running a school?

- In the particulars of running a
school, we brought folks in

from the outside that
had that experience.

So ECMC had no experience
in running a school,

let alone a set of colleges.

- That's correct.

I then asked them about
a report Zenith had

commissioned that detailed all
the problems with Corinthian.

And I quote, talking about
Corinthian, "Students were

misguided, resources
misdirected, questionable loans

issued, and admissions
departments pushed to recruit

anyone with a pulse."

So I want to talk about these
abuses and what you've done

to change things.

- We commissioned the IDEO
report because we want to be

different than the
previous owners.

You know, from the point that
we acquired these schools in

February of 2015,
fully 60% of those employees are no longer

with us.

The senior management,
completely redone.

As I mentioned before,
completely new marketing team.

You say that your
entire marketing team

has been replaced.

What about the
compliance department?

- So our senior leadership,
all but one never drew a dime

of pay from Corinthian,
and that includes the person

who runs compliance.

So we are in the process really
of reinventing the leadership

of Zenith Education.

While it's true that the
top manager for compliance

was replaced, nearly one third
of the staff in that department

remains in place.

Zenith also kept most school
administrators and teachers.

Does it concern you that Zenith
is operating Corinthian with the

same personnel that were there?

- Well, the key thing is
that schools that Zenith runs

have to serve students well.

There's a monitor in place to
help ensure that that occurs,

and we're gonna do all we can to
make sure that they're serving

students well.

How would you grade the
Department on monitoring

and investigating the abuses
that we all know have gone on

at these for-profit schools?

- So I would say an incomplete.

I think we are making progress
certainly compared to where

we were when the administration
began, but more to do.

- Brand new regulations will
hold these schools accountable

for the value of their degrees.

In 2015, after five years
of legal battles, the

Obama administration finally
implemented a gainful employment

rule.

Under this new rule,
schools have three years to prove that

they placed students in jobs
which pay enough for them

to afford their student loans.

- It'll take years for the
final judgment to come in.

So we're gonna regulate
through the rearview

mirror?

- Absolutely.

This was one of my main
objections to what they did.

The American public are
not supposed to be lab rats

on whom we experiment
and then pass judgment

on providers post facto.

You wouldn't do that with food.

You wouldn't do that
with drug safety.

The assumption is that the
burden always ought to be on the

provider to put enough evidence
on the table that what they're

selling the public,
what they're financing with public

dollars, is wholesome and at
the very least not damaging.

The Department of
Education has also launched

a new enforcement unit
promising to more closely

monitor for-profit schools.

And this past month,
the department sanctioned

another school

- The students at ITT Technical
Institute fear that school

may not be around much longer.

- ruling today that ITT
Technical Institute can no

longer enroll new students
who use federal loans.

I spoke to one ITT
student who told me he had

already borrowed $20,000 to
train as an architectural

designer.

- I had to get in debt.

I don't have no rich uncle
who's gonna give it to me

with a silver spoon.

Even though it might cost a
little money in the long run,

it'll still be worth
it, you know?

I won't have to be dependent
upon welfare or anything like

that as I get older.

I'll have a trade under my belt.

Well, you haven't heard
that the school is having

any troubles or might close,
or might be closed down by the

government?

- Well, I hope I'll be able to
learn the program before they

do that,
because I really need to learn it.

- Without warning,
the school closed its doors.

Just last week,
ITT closed, leaving

35,000 students in the
cold, including James Jones.

- ITT Technical Institute
is shutting down for good

Coming up next on
this special edition

of Frontline,
we've followed Omarina since she was in

middle school.

- A middle school intervention
is not sufficient in itself.

Through the hard times,

and the good.

"The Education of
Omarina" begins right now.

This is the story of
six years in a life.

And an attempt to stem the
dropout crisis in America.

When we first met Omarina
Cabrera, she was a middle-school

student in the Bronx,
and she had been struggling.

- Sixth grade was a hard year
because me and my mom got

evicted.

I felt shattered.

That was the home that
I had for my whole life.

I didn't know what was gonna happen
next, and that period

of not knowing wasn't something
that I felt comfortable with.

I felt this inkling in me that
I would never want my children

or anyone else to
experience this.

Shuffled between
relatives' apartments, some

without even electricity,
Omarina suffered another loss.

- When I was really young,
my father walked out for

whatever reason.

I finally got in touch with him.

Just before we were about to
talk and I was about to go see

him, he had gotten a stroke.

I see my father for the first
time and it was in a casket.

With her home life in
chaos, Omarina's school life

began to suffer.

She was showing up late or not at
all, starting down a path

that so many other
young people take.

Every year, hundreds of
thousands of students fail

to finish high school.

- Even kids in the most dire
circumstances really want

a future.

They just need to
have a path to it.

Robert Balfanz,
one of the nation's top education

researchers, had been searching
for that path for 15 years by

studying kids who were
dropping out of high school.

Then he realized that the key
moment when kids begin to go

down the wrong path was
actually in middle school.

- If in the middle grades,
you develop habits of not

coming to school regularly,
of getting in trouble or failing

your courses,
you bring that with you to high school.

What he discovered was
that if a sixth grade child

in a high poverty school is
absent more than 20% of the

time, or fails math or English,
or receives an unsatisfactory

behavior grade in a core course,
there is a 75% chance that they

will drop out of high school
unless there is decisive

intervention.

- It may seem far less than
rocket science, but it's

something that, in fact,
schools by and large have not

paid attention to.

But Omarina's school,
Middle School 244, did.

It had recently implemented
a program based on Balfanz's

research, designed to catch
faltering students like her.

Every week, statistics were
collected and reviewed by a team

of counselors and teachers,
including the principal,

Dolores Peterson.

- Let's go to 802.

Omarina.

How is Omarina doing?

They would flag the
students most in need.

- Her mother's not even in
the United States right now.

She was in a shelter not that long
ago, then they were

evicted.

I took her home one day,
and it's on the other side

of the world, you can say.

- I can't tell you how much
I worry every time she leaves

this building.

- When she leaves this building,
you know, she's on her own

In cases like Omarina's,
they'd organize an intervention.

Catherine Miller was
Omarina's homeroom teacher.

- So once Omarina was
identified, it was imperative on

my part as the homeroom teacher,
in consultation with the

guidance counselor,
to discuss why she was coming in late

so many times.

- They came to me and they asked
me, "What's wrong?

You've been late a lot.

Something has to be wrong."

And that's when I told Ms.
Miller that I was evicted.

- Your mother needs to feel
safe, or she needs to feel good

about where you are, as do
you, and the best we can do

right now is...

We can compile thousands of
numbers about who's failing this

or who's passing that,
but if there's no response to that

data, it's all for naught.

It became clear that a
chaotic home life was the

source of Omarina's problems at
school, and she needed targeted

support.

- You're gonna take
this one today.

The team helped her figure
out routes to school

from ever changing addresses,
got her a bus pass and books.

- It's that sense of
shepherding is what the kids

need to know that an adult not only
cares, but the adult

can actually help them.

- How's it going at home?

- I think it's
calmer than before.

- And your brothers?

- I had a lot of
different things going on.

I had my brother, who is so
smart, and he was just like me.

He's my twin.

My brother began to be exposed
to a lot of the things that were

out there, and not only
him, but a lot of us were.

Not a lot of kids make the right
choice, and that's happened

a lot of times in the
Bronx for a lot of people.

In the summer after sixth
grade, Omarina's twin,

Omarlin, started hanging out
on the streets and getting

in trouble.

His mother had him moved
to another school, thinking

he'd be safer in a
different neighborhood.

But when we met him at the end
of eighth grade, Omarlin was

rarely attending school,
and his high school plans

were uncertain.

- Where am I gonna
go to high school?

I don't know.

I haven't gotten a letter
yet, of acceptance.

- The fact that he got involved
with the streets, he just began

slipping off the mountain-- slipping
off, slipping off,

slipping off-- and
it's really sad.

Without everybody,
that's what I would be.

The fact that I go on to high
school, that wouldn't

matter to me.

"I can get my GED later,"
that's what I would say.

Soon, Omarina was achieving
near perfect grades

and attendance.

Her teachers encouraged her
to apply to competitive prep

schools beyond New York City.

- I thought that
was your best essay.

Read it to me again, I love it.

- "Typically, young adults
look upon a political figure

or someone in their life
for guidance and support.

I, on the other hand,
seem to find this inspiration within a

black and white street sign.

Imprinted on the sign
are the words 'One Way.'

It taunts me with the inevitable
reminder that coming in

is not the obstacle,
but making it out."

When the acceptance
letters began coming

in, they included a scholarship to
Brooks, an exclusive private

boarding school
in Massachusetts.

- So what did you decide?

Which school did you choose?

- After giving it a lot of
thought, I went with Brooks.

- So are you excited?

- Yeah.

- I know I am.

How does it feel, Ms. Miller?

- It's very humbling, um,
and I'm incredibly proud

of your accomplishments.

- Oh, Ms.
Miller, you're gonna make me cry!

Aw, come here.

We checked in on
Omarina halfway through

her sophomore year
at the Brooks School.

- I remember first getting here.

I was nervous that I was
way too different to fit in.

- We pray for our families.

- A lot of kids here are very
wealthy, and their parents are

very important people.

I go back to an apartment
in the middle of the Bronx.

- And we pray for our school,
that we may always be a home

for innocence and truth.

- There's times when you notice
subtle comments because people

haven't been exposed
to certain things.

I think they are genuinely
curious and genuinely want

to know how I do my hair in the
morning, or do I think

in Spanish, or, um...

I don't know, was I born here?

In this new environment,
the pressure on

Omarina wasn't just social.

In the beginning, she says,
she struggled to keep up in class.

- 1-1 equals 3.

Look at the last digit.

- I remember getting my first
quiz back and almost throwing up

because I had a 16%.

And I think that was the moment
when I realized, "Yeah, I'm not

getting by if I don't work
really, really, really hard."

During those times when, you
know, it feels like a little bit

too much, I feel like I do have
a strong faculty to support me.

And Ms. Miller,
who is always with me regardless

of where I am.

- Good morning.

- Good morning.

- What classes do you
have this morning?

- I have algebra two,
then I have a chem test.

- I felt as though it was
really imperative to keep very

constant contact.

- Okay, bye, Ms. Miller.

Love you!

- Just to make sure the
adjustment was going well, but

also knowing that many people
were rooting for her to be

successful here in the Bronx.

- So, what if I asked you
to graph this thing that's

changing over time?

- Well, zero is there,
so it would go away from it,

so it would be negative.

- I caught up and I got
good midterm grades.

I'm excited about
that, and I'm proud.

- My sophomore year,
now this is a good year.

You're kind of just floating.

I just need to keep looking

ahead and just keep going,
keep moving a step at a time.

But just as Omarina

was getting on track at Brooks,
she received a disturbing call.

- It was a Tuesday morning.

I couldn't ignore the feeling
that I had in my stomach.

- Why are we so powerless
to save the people we love?

She found out her
twin brother Omarlin

had been shot.

- I immediately
thought: is he dead?

Just tell me if he's dead.

- I want to tell
you why I did it.

The police said the
shooter fled the scene.

Omarlin survived.

- I was scared and sad and
disappointed and worried,

but I can't show that to him
because he doesn't need that.

He needs someone there
to be strong for him.

With their mother frequently
not at home, Omarina

was making regular trips to the
Bronx, juggling the demands of

her schoolwork and her sense of
responsibility to her brother.

- Hey!

Where were you?

I try very hard not to
ever cry in front of him.

I hope he does realize that I do
care, and that's why I do

the things I do and that's
why I always nag him.

So you get transferred,
or are you still in the process?

What's gonna happen with that?

- I don't know.

I'm just waiting.

- It's not gonna take
long, right?

- No, hope not.

Omarlin was reluctant
to talk about what was

going on in his life,
or about the bullet that could have ended

it.

- It came from this way into my
arms, and then

under my upper ribs
on the left side

close to my heart.

I don't know, I could have
died, so, I thank God

that I'm not dead.

And I could still be here.

So I just have fun.

I know she's going to
have a bright future, too.

Because she goes to school.

She got her scholarship.

That's good.

I don't know,
I have to have a good life

and a good job and
kids and be married.

That's it.

Omarina was finishing
her sophomore year

at Brooks, Omarlin, at age 16,
was still in the ninth grade.

At the time of filming,
he had only shown up for school five

times all year.

In the coming months,
he would be arrested for carrying

a knife,
and for possession of marijuana.

- I handle stress
in different ways.

When I get to Brooks,
I use it as almost my getaway.

I can't just think and think
and think and think about all

the things that are going wrong.

I just think of all the things
that might be going right,

you know?

We returned to Brooks two years
later, after a

difficult junior year that would
determine where, or even if,

she would go to college.

- What is oportet?

Remember from Latin 20,
you had that list of all

impersonal verbs?

- An indirect statement.

- Indirect statement.

- In the beginning,
I definitely thought I was gonna

have one of the best years.

But junior year ended up being
one of the hardest years of my

life.

I think the clouds started
gathering when we found out that

Omarlin was going
to be having a baby.

And I just remember thinking,
like, "What did you do?"

I just thought back to, like,
our childhood and how much our

parents, you know,
affected the trajectory of our lives.

And I just...
I just feared that he might not be able

to physically be there
because he's in a frenzy

to provide for her.

And my fears came true
when he was arrested.

Omarlin plead
guilty to attempted

robbery in the first degree
and was sent to Rikers

Island to await sentencing.

- I knew that my other half,
my brother, the person that I love

most in this world,
was going through something so terrible

that I could never even imagine.

- All right,
so what is the anti-derivative of 9?

- All of this anxiety,
you know, caused me

to lose focus in school.

- We're gonna get back to
finding the volume of the

cylinder,
but we're gonna do it through...

- Junior year's important because those are
the grades that are sent out to colleges.

I was, like, having panic
attacks just thinking about,

like, "Wow, my grades aren't
what they're supposed to be."

Getting up out of
bed was so difficult.

Just that day felt
like too much for me.

- I couldn't fathom the idea
that this amazing young lady who

had overcome so many things and
is on the precipice of moving on

to the next stage of her life,
and that might all be gone.

I knew that an intervention
was absolutely necessary,

so I drove up to Brooks.

- I just stopped, because I saw Ms.
Miller with her "I'm going

to kill you" eyes.

She'd always say, like, "All
right, there's all these things

you can't control,
but what are the things that are bothering

you right now that we can fix?"

She got me this poster for my
wall, more frames to put

pictures of, you know,
the people that I love.

Just that feeling that I had,
you know, people to catch me

whenever I did fall just gave
me the strength to keep moving

forward step by
step, step by step.

While all this was going
on, Omarina,

with the help of Ms.
Miller and the staff at Brooks,

was also applying to colleges.

- That last document that GW
needs, we need to take our

efforts to the next level in
terms of getting this thing

done.

The only way she could
afford to go was with a

generous financial aid package.

Her first choice was George
Washington University.

- I was scared because the
ending of my junior year

wasn't what I wanted it to
be in terms of academics.

- There was a possibility that
the grades were still gonna

overshadow her accomplishments,
which was so disheartening

to think about.

I wasn't sure what we were
gonna do if she didn't have

any financial aid.

The answer came when she
was home for December

break.

- Hi!

- Hey.

- How are you?

You look so pretty.

- Thank you, so do you.

She waited for the news
at her old middle school.

- I'm just a big bunch
of nerves right now.

Anything can happen, basically.

The email comes at 5:00?

At 6:00.

- Okay.

- I got an email yesterday
saying that they're gonna email

it to me at 6:00.

- Okay, y'all are taking
too long for this.

I need to know.

It's been nine minutes.

Oh, my God, I got in!

Oh, my God, yes!

And the money.

I don't know, I don't know,
I think they might send in

the money later.

I'll cry if I get full finan...

I'll cry real tears.

I don't cry, I try not to
cry, but I'll cry real tears.

- So, I just asked if we can
see a snapshot of the financial

aid letter.

Wait, wait, wait,
he just emailed me back.

- What did he say?

- "I can tell you that it is
an extremely generous package."

"And she should have no

issues making it work
next year and beyond."

Okay, now I feel better.

Now I feel better.

I feel better, I feel better.

- I'm gonna cry.

- It's okay!

It's okay.

Oh, thank God.

- Okay.

Oh, God, I don't ever cry,
but this is cry-worthy.

Oh, my God, thank you so much.

- Lives in poverty are fragile.

You could be doing great one
week one year and then something

else hits, and if you don't have
supports, you can still crumble.

Middle school intervention is
not sufficient in itself, but

it's essential that it starts
there, and we can see that

in these two kids'
life trajectories.

Although Omarina got some
special advantages, you don't

need the boarding school; you
need a decent high school.

Two to three adults will get you
all the way through high school

graduation and on a
path to post-secondary.

Her brother tragically
represents the other side

of the story.

If we don't solve the problem
or change the behavior that's

leading a sixth grader to miss
a month of school or fail math

and English,
it doesn't self-correct.

In fact,
we clearly see it gets worse.

Around the same time
that Omarina was accepted

to George Washington,
Omarlin was sentenced to three-

and-a-half years in prison.

- One of the people who were
testifying against him, in

their report, they said that
Omarlin had told them, like,

"I'm sorry that I'm doing this.

I'm doing this for my daughter."

He doesn't get to see a big
portion of her early years,

and his daughter's
growing up pretty fast.

It just really, really

messes with me, like,
knowing that I'm moving on

to a good part of my life.

You know,
I'm graduating high school.

I've always felt like he's
lagging behind me, and you know,

I don't know how to
get him on track.

But this is something different
in the sense that, um, this is

the rest of our lives.

This is no longer, you know,
school; this is his life.

No one in my immediate family
has graduated high school

and gotten into college.

However,
I believe I will be the first one.

And they will be excited

and thrilled, and they'll be
proud of what I've become.

- To be that full of profound
perspective and wisdom at this

stage in her life leaves me
believing that there are no

limits to what she might do
for, and share with, the world.

It is my privilege to present
the Trustees' Prize to Omarina

Cabrera.

Congratulations.

- Thank you.

- Congratulations to
the Class of 2016.