“Once they arrive, affirmative action kids are generally left to sink or swim academically. Brown (University) offers plenty of counseling and tutoring to struggling students, but, as any academic Dean will tell you, it's up to the students to seek it out, something that a drowning minority student will seek to avoid at all costs, fearing it will trumpet a second-class status.”― Ron Suskind, A Hope in the Unseen: An American Odyssey from the Inner City to the Ivy League

Cedric Jennings is a brilliant student attending one of the worst high schools in Washington D.C's most dangerous neighborhoods. The dropout rate at his school has been in double digits for years and he is mocked relentlessly for being so serious about his grades. Does he have a hope of making it out of Ballou High School and fulfilling his dream of attending an Ivy League School?

This is his journey towards discovering himself and finding his future. Cedric is aware that while he might be the best student in his high school, he is really competing for placement against other kids who are from other schools with better education programs.

The author does a terrific job of displaying how minorities remain disadvantaged within the education system. He also shows how Cedric has to work extra hard, not just at his studies, but at trying to fit in with a world he knows nothing about.

“He was confronted at an early age with adult-strength realizations about powerlessness, desperation, and distrust, taking his dose right alongside the overwhelmed adults. This steady stream of shocks and realizations leaves so many boys raised in poor, urban areas stumbling toward manhood with a hardened exterior masking deep insecurities.”― Ron Suskind, A Hope in the Unseen: An American Odyssey from the Inner City to the Ivy League

An inspiring read about a brilliant mind who has the odds stacked against him.