There Is Something Waiting For Me

A self-made millionaire Eugene Lang greatly changed the lives of a sixth-grade class in East Harlem.  Mr. Lang had been asked to speak to a class of the fifty-nine sixth-graders.  What could he say to inspire these students, most of whom would drop out of school?  He wondered how he could get these predominantly black and Puerto Rican children even to look at him.

Scrapping his notes, he decided to speak to them from his heart.  "Stay in school," he admonished, "and I'll help pay the college tuition of every one of you."

At that moment the lives of those student changed.  For the first time they had hope.

One student said, "I had something to look forward to, something waiting for me.  It was a golden feeling."

Nearly ninety percent of that class went on to graduate from high school.

- Parade magazine