Most of us have seen pictures from Brandon Stanton’s blog, Humans of New York, better known by its acronym HONY, plastered across various social media outlets over the past few years. Stanton recently began a fundraising campaign that has so far raised over 1 million dollars for an underprivileged middle school in Brooklyn. This fundraiser, which has caught the attention of major news outlets, talk shows, millions of people, and most recently—the President of the United States—began with a simple photograph of a boy who was inspired by his educator.
Two weeks ago, Stanton came across a 13-year-old-boy, Vidal Chastanet, in Brownsville, a high-crime area. He snapped his picture and asked one of his standard questions: “Who has influenced you the most in your life?”
Vidal’s response was striking for an eighth grade boy. He said the person who influenced him the most was his principal, Ms. Nadia Lopez.
“When we get in trouble, she doesn’t suspend us. She calls us to her office and explains to us how society was built down around us. And she tells us that each time somebody fails out of school, a new jail cell gets built. And one time she made every student stand up, one at a time, and she told each one of us that we matter.”
Stanton was then intrigued and went to meet Lopez at Mott Hall Bridges Academy. Ms. Lopez explained her mission at Mott Hall Bridges Academy to Stanton: “This is a neighborhood that doesn’t necessarily expect much from our children, so at Mott Hall Bridges Academy we set our expectations very high. We don’t call the children ‘students,’ we call them ‘scholars.’ Our color is purple. Our scholars wear purple and so do our staff. Because purple is the color of royalty. I want my scholars to know that even if they live in a housing project, they are part of a royal lineage going back to great African kings and queens. They belong to a group of individuals who invented astronomy and math. And they belong to a group of individuals who have endured so much history and still overcome. When you tell people you’re from Brownsville, their face cringes up. But there are children here that need to know that they are expected to succeed.”
Stanton was awed by the school and the entire staff there, and asked what he would be able to do to help Ms. Lopez help the students. Stanton and Lopez decided to start a fundraiser to send incoming 6th grade students to Harvard for a week to see that they can belong to a bigger community and attain higher goals.
Stanton put together a crowdfunding effort on www.indiegogo.com to raise money toward this powerful campaign. The goal of the fundraiser and the trip, he explains on the fundraising page, is for Ms. Lopez’s ‘scholars’ to “know what it feels like to stand on the campus of one of the world’s top schools, and know that they belong. She [Ms. Lopez] thinks the experience will broaden their horizons and expand their idea of their own potential.”
The campaign began originally aiming for $100,000, enough for three years of field trips to Harvard. Now, with $1.185 million raised as of today, they have 10 years of Harvard field trips, along with 10 years of summer programs, and additionally, over $300,000 for scholarships, named after Vidal, with Vidal himself being one of the first recipients.
One of the most moving aspects about this fundraiser is how it came at such a critical time for Ms. Lopez. This was depicted in a moving talk show segment on Ellen DeGeneres’s show, in which Ms. Lopez described that the week before the picture of Vidal was taken, she was in a place in which she was broken.
“I think every educator gets there,” she said. “I went home, broke down, and cried. I told my mother I couldn’t do it anymore.” She explained that her mother told her to pray, and that God had put her in this school for a reason. This fundraiser came at a time for Ms. Lopez when she thought her work “wasn’t making a difference and there was a lot of violence going on in the world.” She continued to explain that she woke up Monday morning to see Vidal’s photograph, with thousands upon thousands of encouraging comments, bolstering and reassuring her that she was doing the right thing.
Professor Joy Ladin, the head of the English department at Stern College, wholeheartedly relates to this sentiment. “On the one hand, being a teacher feels great—I have all these students looking at me, ready to hear what I have to say,” she explained. “However, there’s also a sense of isolation within that relationship. I really don’t have any idea if anything I’m saying is being understood or heard.”
Pausing reflectively, she continued, “I like when the balance of power in the classroom shifts—when students begin doing the talking. That’s where the action is. I feel as though the validation of teaching happens when a student repeats something you taught in their own words, with their own interpretation and meaning. When something I say is reflected back at me—that is when I truly learn.”
There’s a saying that Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks often says, typically when referring to the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson: “Good leaders create followers. Great leaders create leaders.” Teachers have a tremendous responsibility as leaders in a classroom to create leaders, to enable their students to teach.
“The faculty here has been instrumental in shaping my fields of interest,” said Shira Huberfeld, a junior at Stern College. “I became fascinated with art history after a first semester introduction to art history course with Dr. Marnin Young, and it has led me to become the Arts and Culture editor of The Observer and an Art History minor.”
She further explained, “The course was a prerequisite and not something I would have considered studying had it not been for the positive impression I gained from my professor.”
Mimi Adler, a junior at Stern College as well, agreed that while teachers have inspired her with their passion about their job, she has “never really had a teacher make me feel awesome as an individual.”
It’s a hard balance to strike as a teacher—to remain distinct as an educator in the classroom, while giving students the feeling that they are crucial as an individual. “Although it is especially crucial to make underprivileged students feel as though they belong anywhere by facilitating access to opportunities that enable them to become leaders, the same opportunities should be as easily accessed by every student”,” Miriam Stock, a junior at Stern noted.
What Stanton, Vidal, and Ms. Lopez have all exemplified throughout this episode is that one never knows what lasting influence a single person can have. Ms. Lopez had not realized that the messages she was trying to imbue her students with were even reaching them. Vidal could not have known how strong of an effect his words would have on Stanton. And Stanton probably did not realize that starting a photography blog after becoming unemployed would end up changing the lives of millions of people.