This is the time of year high school seniors start
finding out whether or not they got into their dream colleges.
And this is what happened when our next guest got
her decision from Duke.
Dad, I got in!
Oh, my god, I got in!
I got in.
I told you.
Even though my mom has passed
away for almost six years now
she's been gone, I still learn something new
from her every single day.
And she has these note cards with affirmations.
And they're all over my room.
And I read them every single day.
She has journals, where you kind of
see her mature from a young lady and to a young woman.
And I use that kind of as like a guiding light for me.
And she's, like, my role model.
And so I knew that I wanted her to be a part of this experience
because she's helped me, even though she's been gone,
grow into the woman that I am today, so.
And so there's a special reason you
wanted to go to Duke, right?
Yes.
So I've always been in love with the ocean.
I've been enthralled by it since I was little.
And Duke is the number-one Marine Science
school in the entire nation.
And it's so diverse.
It's so academically intense, which I really appreciate.
And since I was little, I wanted to become
a marine biotechnologist.
And they analyze the marine flora and fauna
on the ocean floor.
And they dive into the molecular genetics and genomics
behind all of that to gain a better
understanding of the diseases or the disorders,
like the brain aneurysm that my mom had,
that a lot of ocean life is resistant to.
So I love helping people.
And I love the ocean.
So I knew it was, like, a perfect job for me, so.
That's fantastic.
I love that you want to do that.
It's another reason that we should take care of our oceans
because we have so much more to learn.
There's all kinds of answers and medicinal things
that we are going to learn from the ocean.
You're a full-time student.
You're also working two jobs.
Yeah. I'm a full-time student.
I currently have a 4.0 GPA.
Wow!
Threw that in my face.
Let me know my education isn't correct.
That's good.
I work, like, 70 hours a week.
And I'm just doing it to pay for school.
And your family-- you help your family.
Yeah, I help my family with whatever is left over
with the bills and stuff.
And I just love your show so much.
And you!
Me too.
Yeah, you too!
Yeah.
What now?
tWitch.
So you have received-- just these are a few of the things
that you have received so far--
President's Volunteer Service Award three times,
the President Education Award for Outstanding Academic
Excellence, Bank of America Student Leader Award,
Bank of America Achievement Award
for Leadership, just so many things.
Wow.
Come on.
That's worth it.
That deserves it.
Thank you.
How do you have time-- you watch my show.
How do you have time to watch my show?
Because you just bring so much joy to my life.
And you are just an amazing person.
And I aspire to be able to help people one day in my community
through owning my own business just like you do.
Wow.
Well that's really sweet.
Oh, my goodness.
I read about you.
And literally, you study all night long.
You go to these jobs.
Then you do homework.
And you go to sleep at, like, 4:00 in the morning sometimes.
And you wake up at 6:00 in the morning.
Yeah.
I do.
I go from one job.
And then I have, like, an hour-and-a-half break.
I do homework.
I go to the next one.
Sometimes we don't get out till midnight, 1:00.
And I come home, and I watch your show
just to revive myself.
And then I start to study, and I do it over again.
I'm quite sure there's a Kevin Hart show that you probably
watch--
Oh, yeah.
Most definitely.
Mm-hmm.
--just to revive, I'm saying, because I
know she watches your show.
But I'm saying there's probably something they I've done that--
Maybe not.
Our next guest made headlines last week
when she was named a semifinalist
in the most prestigious science competition in the country.
And what's more incredible is she's homeless.
Take a look at this.
My name is Samantha Garvey.
I'm a Brentwood High School student.
Samantha is an Intel Science Talent Search semifinalist.
She is one of 300 United States students
to be recognized in this prestigious competition.
What makes you get up every day and keep marching forward
and being you.
It's a number of things.
Just if you keep the mentality
that things will get better,
I think that's been a big part of me thinking,
OK, it's not that bad.
If you just look at it in a different light,
then things can get better.
And with the support of my family
my parents, my whole family, everyone around me
has always been really amazing.
And they push me, and they tell me to pick my head up,
and they tell me to keep going.
And with my science, my science has helped me.
With my research teacher, that helped her
through all her adversity.
And I thought if it could help her,
then it could help me, right?
If I do good, and I do things good, if I pursue my studies
and I do well in school that good will come out of it.
There'll be a reward in the end.
Yeah.
To be honest with you,
I pitched the idea to my parents
of, like, starting this nonprofit.
And I was like, yeah, I can build, like, 5 or 10 desks
for kids who need them.
Maybe someone will join in and help from the community.
And I'm just glad it's gotten this big
so I can help this many people.
So you said you thought you'd build five or six.
You've built over 120 desks.
And how many more will you build, do you think?
Yeah, so my goal is 300 by the end of next summer.
I'm starting to slow down for focus on my junior year.
But I'm going to build 20 around Christmas
and start it up again in the summer.
So I'm really excited to keep going and hit that number.
So you started-- it was a small idea.
Now you're inspiring other people
to do this as well, right?
Yeah, so I've actually had people--
I've had people reach out from Texas, Michigan.
Someone even in your state California,
he's already built 10 desks for his community.
So I'm really glad.
That's my main message right now,
to just be able to spread the message
and help people realize that this is
a thing needed in communities.
I've created a Facebook group called
Desk for Distance Outreach, which has instructions,
everything someone needs to get started in their community,
like how to raise funds.
I've actually posted a full tutorial
on how I make my version of the desk.
But people can make whatever version they want.
So, yeah, I've helped people get a lot of people started.
So I'm really glad it's gotten this big.
I love where I live.
But right now, we're in a water crisis.
We turn now to a growing crisis in Flint, Michigan
over the city's water supply, contaminated
by toxic levels of lead.
This all comes after Flint switched from the Detroit water
system to the more corrosive Flint River.
A lot of people don't have transportation or can't walk.
So I volunteer at my church.
I distribute water about three or more times a week.
And those people are just so grateful because they
need help.
They need a lot of help.
So me and my family, we will do as much as we can.
First of all, this is just an atrocity what's
happening in Flint, Michigan.
It's crazy what's happening.
But why is it so important to you?
It's so important to me just--
I'm just so grateful for
everything that I have.
And I want to give back to people who don't have anything
or just don't have transportation
because the water crisis right now is awful.
People can't take showers right now.
They can't bathe without having a rash,
or just they can't wash their pets
without the fur coming off.
It's very bad.
It's really, really bad there.
Yeah.
And how long have you been volunteering there?
I have been volunteering for since I was younger.
I've been born and raised at this church.
So right now I'm doing everything
I can to help them during this crisis.
Wow.
And so you have-- it's your mom and your grandma
and you share a car.
Yeah.
And so you all share that car to get around and volunteer.
Yep. We pack up water in the car.
We just go to somebody who needs a water.
We're right there.
Lem, this is your shot for free tuition.
Gets up.
You tell your family.
And I love this story.
Tell what your family said and how you told your family.
Well, I texted my parents
because my parents are deaf.
So I didn't call them.
I texted my mom.
I said, Mom, I just made a half-court shot
for free tuition.
She said, stop joking.
Like, no, you're lying.
Because I joke around with my family a lot.
I was like, OK, fine.
I didn't.
So then, like, an hour later, she
sees it on ESPN on the top 10 plays, I think.
She FaceTimes me and goes like, oh, my god!
You actually did make a shot for free tuition.
And she's, like, in tears.
And she was, like, really proud of me.
Yeah, I bet.
That's amazing.
So it covers your cost of your-- it's free tuition, right?
Yeah, for a semester.
You must have been worried about that.
Oh, yeah, a lot because I do have three brothers,
and we're all very close in age.
And so sending four boys to college
definitely takes its toll on the family.
Yeah.
The job market for deaf parents or deaf people
isn't that large.
And so having that kind of weight on my shoulders
was kind of tough.
I was still figuring out my finances in my family
during that time.
And so when I made that half-court shot,
it just took like a big weight off my shoulders,
and my family's shoulders as well.
Well, I go to Davidson
College in North Carolina.
I'm a senior right now.
During my sophomore year, we got sent home because of COVID.
So I spent an extended period of time in Annapolis.
And while I was there, I saw in the news
how people who are incarcerated in Maryland
were having a hard time with the pandemic,
not having access to adequate cleaning supplies, masks,
not being able to properly social distance.
And I knew that I had a personal connection to someone
who was in there.
So I wrote a letter to check in on the situation,
give them some life updates on mine as well.
That first letter turned into more letters and phone calls
and Skype calls.
And it got to the point where I decided
that I wanted to start a project called
Telling the Stories of the Ignored and Forgotten.
And Sura's story was the one that I
wanted to tell to the world in an objective way.
Right.
So I interviewed Sura many times over the phone,
through letter, interviewed his family members, interviewed--
I went through all the public record from court.
I wanted to understand his life story in the most objective way
possible.
So we had some tough conversations during that time
and, yeah tried to get a big picture.
That's amazing.
So then you convince the judge.
He gets out 12 years early.
That's right.
And what's-- I mean, what a friend, by the way, huh?
What a friend.
So what's next for both of you?
I'm currently enrolled GED classes to finish my GED.
And hopefully by the end of this year--
I started doing photography too.
And hopefully by the end of this year,
I can go to college for film productions.