In Brownsville they expect you to fail.
They expect you to stay in where you're at.
They expect you to not be anything in life.
You wouldn't think that something from Brownsville
would get so big and catch people's attention.
I was walking home from the store on Martin Luther
King Day and Brandon approaches me and he says he's
with the Humans of New York page on Facebook.
He took some pictures and he asked me,
"Who inspires you the most?"
And I answered, "My principal Ms. Lopez."
She would tell us how if we want to be anything
in life, we have to work towards who we want to be,
not what the society wants us to be.
Now I understand that if I want to achieve my goal of
being a chef and an actor I can't argue with teachers
because of my own self ego.
It really struck a chord with me
because he thought of me enough.
He could have said his mom, who is phenomenal.
He could have said his aunt, his sisters, like he could
have said anyone in the world but he chose to say that
I was the one who had the most impact.
What does a question look like?
Because that's an honest question, right?
What does our body language suggest
when we have a question? What happens?
For me, what is comes down to is changing the
narrative of what happens.
We're one school with 191 kids out of 80,000 residents.
Convince me.
This is rehearsal. You do it until you get it right.
In this building, my kids are going to feel
like they're successful.
And I have control in this building of what that looks like
and what the expectations are.
So did you apologize?
I didn't get to, because she was about to cry, or fight.
Okay, so what can we do to right this wrong?
Say sorry?
I mean, it's so simple. You knew the answer.
I don't know what to do right now.
Wait, so when do you want to do it?
I don't know.
I'll find her and I'll talk to her.
I never wanted to be that person where the kids say,
"I've never seen my principal."
Like, I think that's unacceptable.
If you're the leader you must lead,
you must show your face.
It causes people to become accountable.
You think you're acting acceptable?
Did you just roll your eyes,
or are you going to use your words? Yes or no?
No.
No. So even if I'm not in there,
I don't care who's in there, you act right.
Alright. Okay.
Thank you sir.
You owned your behavior when you did it, right? So
own your behavior when you're in front of your principal.
And that's the conversation.
Because I know it's such a hard job, I lead by example.
Before Vidal even said that, and the post was put out,
I felt like nothing I was doing had an impact.
He texts me, and he says,
"Nadia, I just want you to know,
I'm putting it up, hold on to your seats."
Sure. No problem.
I'm walking down the hallway, maybe like,
45 minutes into after him calling me and
then one of my staff members said,
"Ms. Lopez, you know we made our goal?"
And I was like, "What goal?" He was like, "The $100,000."
I said, "What?" He was like, "In 45 minutes."
I was like, "What?" And he was like,
"Yeah, like we made it," and I was just like,
"Are you serious?"
Wednesday Brandon was in my office and he was like,
"I'm going to put out the post about you speaking at
assembly," and I said "Okay, sure. That's what you do."
And literally he pressed the button and he was like,
"Oh my god." And I was like, "What's wrong?
And he was like, "It's going up $1000 a minute."
I was like, "What?"
Like everything for me is like, I can't like, even fathom
that for a moment I thought that I didn't matter,
that no one cared about these kids, you know, outside
of where we're at, and people were just being so
generous, and it was just the act of humanity that was
overwhelming. It just felt like the most powerful peace.
You're going home? Or you have study hall?
Tuesday? Study hall?
Hi Scholars. Did Mrs.Chu make an announcement for
y'all to watch The Ellen Show? She said?
To watch the Ellen Show?
Because I am going to be on TV. 4 o'clock. 4 o'clock.
So they're outfitting every classroom at
Mott Hall Bridges Academy with state of the art
technology and they're going to give similar grants
to every school in the community.
I tell my teachers all the time that we are chosen to be
here because we're supposed to transform a
community that doesn't believe in themselves.
A lot of people will come here and say,
"I feel like it's hopeless."
But now there is this feeling of hope.
People are actually trying to make a change,
trying to better the community here.
It's good to have people see that because if they didn't
see it now then how long would it take
before they've seen it?
Dear Ms. Lopez, I'd like to set up a time to talk about
Vidal and the opportunity for him to receive a
scholarship to the International Culinary Center upon
graduating from high school.
This is a really big deal Vidal.
You have like the golden ticket right now.
All right.
Thank you Ms. Lopez.
You're welcome honey.
I told you. Your dreams will come true.