Angela Lee is auditioning for competitive college dance programs with the hope of someday becoming a professional dancer. After receiving a letter from the University of Arizona dance program, she learns that she has not been accepted. ...See moreAngela Lee is auditioning for competitive college dance programs with the hope of someday becoming a professional dancer. After receiving a letter from the University of Arizona dance program, she learns that she has not been accepted. Though her confidence is shaken, she eagerly anticipates an acceptance letter from her dream school, SUNY Purchase. Christina McVay lives in rural Barbourville, Kentucky, a town where poverty and drug addiction have gripped a large portion of the community. At just 17, she is five months pregnant and lives with the baby's father Les and his mother. Though Christina has been separated from her own mother due to drug addiction and lost her father in the Iraq War, she considers herself lucky because Les has a decent job and they plan to get married. She hopes to go to college but her new baby may put that plan on hold. Maurice Massonburg lives on the south side of Chicago, which is often called "Chi-raq" due to the wave of gun violence sweeping across the city. Despite the distractions and bad influences in his neighborhood, Maurice attends a charter school committed to helping underprivileged students go to college. This doesn't reduce the mounting pressure he feels to become the first in his family to graduate from high school and attend college. Written by
Al Jazeera America [us]
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