[school bell rings] - I think it was March 13th, that Friday.

Just sent it out, and it was like, no school.

We're not going back.

- More than 1,500 K-12 schools across the country that have or plan to shut down.

- We were like, OK, if we leave, we're going to come back to school in two weeks, no problem.

- But we just never went back.

- We all were not prepared to go into distance learning.

We were not at all.

- It's like, your senior year is your most memorable, and it's going to be through a computer.

- So, you know, we're going to try and write some fire essays.

The school board just basically said, we're going to stay in distance learning.

But at the same time, they decided to put police in our schools.

If the people who are in leadership don't understand what the students are going through, it's not going to matter.

- Say no to SROs!

crowd: Say no to SROs!

Say no to SROs!

- Counselors!

crowd: No cops!

- Counselors!

crowd: No cops!

- Counselors!

crowd: No cops!

- Bilingual aid!

crowd: No cops!

- The school district is voting right now to approve six police officers in schools.

We're here because we want them to vote no.

- That's a council member right there.

- We need counselors.

What Cam's doing in the schools-- college and career advisors, they continue to cut program after program, and now they want the money to go to the police.

- We're going to try to make sure that we all can get inside and then let everyone in, so... - Going to try.

- The issue of policing in the schools, in the city itself has become the central issue, as it has in America, right?

And I hate to say this, because I hate saying, you know, Antioch represents America, because that is the cheesiest way you can begin any story.

But it really is true.

- Massive crowds swarming cities across the country are choosing social justice over social distancing.

- We can be killed by COVID-19 just as easily as we can be killed by a cop.

- ♪ Turn on the news, ♪ ♪ See the script from "Contagion" ♪ ♪ I feel like Matt Dillon ♪ ♪ I'm immune, but quit playin', quit playin' ♪ ♪ Serious, mask on, mask off ♪ ♪ Chillin' on the couch, I see the knee on the neck ♪ ♪ God put us on time-out so we could check out ♪ ♪ Another brother killed by a dirty cop vet ♪ ♪ Say his name, George Floyd, don't you forget ♪ crowd: George Floyd!

- Say his name!

- Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 called up an issue that, you know, we'd been talking about for years around police violence.

All of these cities were saying, we're going to get rid of police in schools.

At the same time, Antioch was going the other way.

- Talk about it!

- It don't sound right!

All the research, you know what it says?

SROs don't work!

They say it criminalizes our students!

- Yeah!

- It's very tough, because the school board had just cut $1.8 million in funding.

And somehow, someway, they were going to find $375,000 to put into school resource officers.

They're going to hear us, right?

[crowd shouting] - After George Floyd was murdered, our schools, they had said, we stand with you, and stuff like that.

If you stand with us, then how can you put officers on our campus?

- Counselors, not cops!

crowd: Counselors, not cops!

- I feel uneasy knowing that it's a whole officer on campus, with their gun armed, ready to shoot whenever.

- Counselors, not cops!

crowd: Counselors, not cops!

- We will vote you out!

crowd: We will vote you out!

- We will vote you out!

crowd: We will vote you out!

- A lot of students showed up.

A lot of alumni showed up.

And basically, you know, they said, either you're going to vote no, or we're not going to let the meeting go.

- I mean, it goes to show how they feel towards us.

We're telling you that we don't want officers on our campus, and yet you still feel like, oh, yeah, we can still put officers on the campus.

It doesn't matter.

Like, you know, they'll be OK.

But, like, we're not OK. [upbeat music] ♪ ♪ - ♪ Work all day till my feet get sore ♪ ♪ Keep on working till the whistle blow ♪ ♪ Oh, when the nighttime come ♪ ♪ It's on when the nighttime come ♪ ♪ Wear this mask on my face all day ♪ ♪ Smiling like I'm loving doing what you say ♪ ♪ Oh, till the nighttime come ♪ ♪ It's on when the nighttime come ♪ ♪ Wear this mask on my face all day ♪ ♪ Smiling like I'm loving doing what you say ♪ ♪ Oh, till the nighttime come ♪ ♪ It's on when the nighttime come ♪ ♪ It ain't really over, it has just begun ♪ ♪ We going to be all right when the nighttime come ♪ ♪ Tired of trying to figure what I might become ♪ ♪ I just want to sing my song when the nighttime come ♪ [school bell rings] - So last-- I think it was January, there was a big basketball game.

[crowd cheering] [whistle blows] - It was against our school rivals.

It was Antioch against Deer Valley High School.

In the end, Deer Valley won.

We beat Antioch High.

Everybody's cheering, happy for their school and everything.

And then it just all went away in a blink of an eye.

- A student shot outside of a high school basketball game has died.

- The 16-year-old was found outside of Deer Valley High School Friday night.

Police say it all started when a basketball game against Antioch High School wrapped up.

- What happened was, a group of kids were fighting, and then a kid pulled out a gun.

There was a student that got shot, and he ended up passing away the next day.

His name was Jonathan Parker.

They called him John John.

He was a sophomore at Deer Valley.

[somber music] ♪ ♪ That happened on a Friday night, and we came back to school the next Monday.

It was emotional for students, for sure.

- Kids that knew him, like, they weren't able to talk.

I saw how a lot of the people that did know him were so affected by it.

- And, you know, you look around, and it's like, some kids in your class crying because they knew the student and everything.

It's just--it was so sad.

- What we were witnessing was students who are grieving for the loss of their friend, and what they needed was support.

- After that, there was an emergency meeting held by the district to kind of go over the safety measures, and they were like, there's a Deer Valley problem.

- And additionally, as mentioned previously, the chief of police and I are working on a grant to add school resource officers as well as police presence... - They want to put cops on campus based off of what happened at that game.

The whole shooting, that was not related to the school.

- Wasn't even a Deer Valley student who pulled the trigger.

It was a Pittsburgh High student, I believe.

- It's just the crime scene.

It's where it took place.

It's not the school's fault.

- And just these people trying to blame the students, trying to, like, make us seem like we're, like, bad kids, when everyone was still grieving.

- At Deer Valley High School, there are no mental health counselors.

There are no restorative justice facilitators.

There are no peer mediators.

There was a board meeting that happened, and I spoke about the need for mental health.

They didn't need cops on campus.

So I am here to ask, if we are here to discuss safety and the protection of our students, how are we going to care for their emotional needs, and how are we going to support what they need going forward?

I encourage you to review the allocation of resources across AUSD schools.

Our students are incredible.

They are scholars.

They are athletes.

They are performers.

And they deserve better.

Thank you.

crowd: No SROs!

No SROs!

No SROs!

- OK, just for the public, we have protesters inside the building, and we need to call for police to continue the meeting.

crowd: Counselors, not cops!

- Counselors, not cops!

- We had 88 public comments out of 100 at the city council meeting saying, we do not want police in our schools.

They do not make us feel safe.

They make us feel uncomfortable.

We feel criminalized.

And in my opinion, this is a complete disregard to all of that.

This is basically saying, we don't care what you have to say.

We're going to do what we're going to do because we think it's best for these kids.

- Like, our school board is putting their kids in danger, and nobody cares.

Nobody cares to listen.

- They're banging on the door.

But we're going to continue our meeting.

- We need more counselors.

We need more people who are experts in college admissions.

Those are the things our students need.

This is where we should put our resources and not in SROs.

You know what I'm saying?

[indistinct chatter] - OK, with that, we have a motion on the floor for six officers accepting the grants.

I'm going to call for the vote.

Trustee Sawyer-White.

- No.

- Trustee Ellie Householder.

- No.

- Trustee Gary Hack.

- Yes.

- Trustee Mary Rocha.

- Yes.

- And my vote is yes.

The motion passes 3-2.

- It didn't end up doing anything.

- It's really hard to sit here and come to terms with that.

- I think that we're moving in the wrong direction by putting cops on campus.

- But it doesn't... - It's scary to think that instead of providing a more welcoming place to come to, especially after something like that, now they want to put police officers there, which does not make it seem like somewhere you're welcome.

[people arguing] - It is not making me feel safer!

- A lot of the students were the organizers of the protests, and that just goes to show the potential that these students have.

And it's one of the reasons why we need to invest in them.

I want to learn more about, you know, the racial barriers, the structural barriers.

But more importantly, like, how do we get over the hump?

What about this structure is going to change so that we don't see these disparities anymore, right?

And so I feel like I have to go get my education and, you know, I need to learn more about that.

I am applying to graduate school.

I'm applying to master's and PhD programs, because I want to gain as much knowledge as possible about these things.

I'm really excited, because I made this breakthrough on what I want to study in grad school.

Like, I really thought about why I push students to college so much.

And one of the reasons that I came to is this concept critical consciousness.

Critical consciousness is basically just understanding the world, the different systems, the oppressive forces that are on you as a person and then taking action to do something against them.

When I was in college, that's where I learned about all of these systems that were at play.

And that's one of the reasons why I push students to college.

[upbeat music] ♪ ♪ [computer chimes] I see Javonte.

I see Kadynce.

I see Ebei.

Let's get into it, y'all.

Here are just some things that I want to make sure everybody does.

I've had a one-on-one with Emily.

We had a really great conversation.

She's maybe showed up to one meeting.

I'm really hoping that she shows up today.

If not, I'm probably going to have to reach out.

So those are very important.

It's something that you should not procrastinate on.

And if you need help with those, please let me know, OK?

- We were slow for the first couple of weeks when we were first going into quarantine, but we've been open every day.

It's good to see people that I know at work from school, but I was still missing a lot of classes for work.

And it's just, like, so hard trying to get through these uncertain times, like, one thing after another.

- Especially for my seniors, continue to check your emails.

A lot of times, they will send you an email, and they will tell you to create a college portal, OK?

That college portal is where you will figure out whether or not you've got accepted or not.

So it is actually really important.

- I've been working a lot, so it was just-- it was really hard to adjust.

- I want everyone to sign up for a one-on-one.

I'm going to put that link in the chat for my seniors.

Other than that, if y'all have questions, hit me up.

I'm here for y'all, always.

Thank y'all for coming.

- Bye, Mr. Cam.

- Bye, y'all.

- Have a good week.

[computer chimes] - Last year, when I would have meetings, I would just call them out of class, and then we would meet during maybe a lunch period or a class time.

But now they have to, you know, be on top of their business and really be intentional about coming to the meetings.

[upbeat music] ♪ ♪ - What's up, brother?

- I like to work out and exercise because I like that thrill in your body you get.

Like, people that's active know what I'm talking about.

The adrenaline.

I've been like that since I was, like, a baby.

Like, I always had energy.

So I need to play sports to control that, or else I'm going to go crazy or something.

I don't know.

- It's like, we had that backup plan always with juco, but it's like, that's not what you--not what you really want.

It's like, you worked your butt off.

I mean, juco not bad, to be honest, but it's just not what you want to go.

- If you can go to a university, then go-- then go to the university.

You don't want to go to a juco.

- Yeah.

- Unless you just don't have the grades.

Then you go to juco, get them up, and then you can transfer to a university, but... All right.

- Sports are very important to me.

School gets you able to play sports, so that's just my motivation, to keep going in school and everything.

But basketball is my main sport, for sure.

[hip-hop music] - ♪ I can put you on the A-list ♪ ♪ I heard you want to be famous ♪ - I do want to play college basketball.

I want a basketball scholarship, because if I'm going to college to play basketball and I'm getting a free education, that's just, like-- it can't get better than that.

- ♪ I heard you want to be famous ♪ ♪ You can be on top like your name is on the A-list ♪ ♪ All these haters talking ♪ ♪ But you know they never say [...] ♪ ♪ Be reaching for the stars ♪ ♪ Overnight, you going to be famous ♪ - D1 colleges like Duke and Kentucky, their games have, like, 20,000 people.

All that energy, I would just love to be in that type of environment.

One second left, you got the ball in your hand.

Shoot it.

- ♪ You gotta put it down for the team ♪ ♪ If you want to be famous ♪ - That's what it would get me.

[crowd cheering] [feet stomping, hands clapping rhythmically] - You feel more accomplished if you get out of high school with a good scholarship and you go play somewhere, like, big.

You know what I mean?

So yeah, yeah, we really need this season, to be honest.

- For sure, because you're not-- we don't have no other chance.

Especially with high school, you don't have another chance.

[percussive music] ♪ ♪ - We really, truly thought we would get an October start.

Rolled into October and ended up getting pushed again.

Nothing on campus, no practice.

All classes are continuing to be held online.

- Since March 19th of this year, the state of California effectively suspended all youth sports leagues to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

All school, club, and recreational youth sports have been put on hold.

- Youth sports is still sidelined.

- What's next for the kids?

Many kids needed this year to earn a scholarship.

- For the athlete that's really looking to make big strides, the biggest impact is that to get a scholarship, you have to be seen.

You have to be watched.

And if you're not playing, you don't get the same kind of evaluation, and they don't get those college opportunities.

- And it really sucks.

Like, football season was supposed to be right now.

They're planning for us to go back in January, and sports are supposed to start in January.

So I'm really hoping that plan is what we stick to.

I've gotten some recruiting from smaller schools but, like, not at the scale that I would want.

- Ultimately, the bottom line-- it comes down to the district office.

The district office says yes or no as to whether or not we will start sports or not.

[light music] ♪ ♪ - So here is their last cheer picture.

And there's Kadynce right here.

And Ebei's right there in the middle.

And that's our last picture right now.

And this is the wall of cheer.

[upbeat music] - The main reason why I decided to try out for the team: my mom was a cheerleader.

I really look at it as a sisterhood.

I cheer for football season and basketball season.

Both of those seasons are pushed back.

- Go!

♪ ♪ - We didn't have football on the sidelines, no basketball, nothing.

It's an empty feeling.

- I waited so long to be on varsity, cheer at nighttime games, all that stuff.

And everything shut down, that weighs heavily on me.

Just--oh, my goodness.

I don't even like thinking about it, because it's-- it's sad.

I miss my team, OK?

I miss hearing my coach to tell me and Ebei to stop goofing off and get back to the dance routine and stuff.

I miss that.

- My girls Ebei and Kadynce, they could do anything they want if they put their mind to it.

They're smart.

They're intelligent.

They have the drive.

I don't want them to lose that.

I don't want them to lose that.

- Go!

- I have all different types of fabric-- Spider-Man, polka-dot, God, happiness, peace.

- I started living with my grandma when I was about seven years old because my mom, she had passed away due to lupus, which is a disease that attacks your immune system.

- Oh, who is this little fellow here?

Cat in the Hat.

- And then my grandma, she ended up moving into an independent senior living place.

And because it's for seniors, I can't be there.

So therefore, I ended up moving in with my uncle and my auntie, who stay around the corner from the school.

[dramatic music] ♪ ♪ So his name is John Cena, and we've had John Cena for 15 years now.

He keeps my granny company when I'm not hear and everything.

Even when I'm not here, I call her every day just to make sure she's OK, she feels all right, if she needs anything.

- Her mother went to Davis.

But she didn't finish because she got sick.

But she was still trying to finish.

She had, like, one semester left that she was trying to do over a seven-year period.

Every time she would get started there, she would get sick and have to stop.

Her mother was always, like, a gifted child in school.

She was in the gifted programs and everything.

So with her, it was just almost like Kady.

Like, Kady now taking AP courses and stuff.

Her mother did the same thing going to school.

She was on the cheerleading squad and all that other stuff too.

- That's me and my mom.

She had me while she was in college.

Pretty sure she was majoring to be a nurse.

I was, like, seven when she passed.

It happened when I was so young, so I just can't remember that much.

But from what I can remember, she was great, you know.

Just the small things and being there with her.

My granny told me, like, a lot of stories about her and everything.

But she talks about how-- everything she does, how she worked so hard.

She does it as if that's what my mom would have wanted and that would have been the best option, the best thing for me.

So yeah, pretty much, pretty much.

Yeah.

- I don't have to worry about Kady.

Did you do your homework, Kady?

Did you do this, Kady?

I don't have to do that with her.

So I got confidence that she can do it.

Might, you know, need a little bit more pushing here and there when it gets a little rough, but she can do it.

♪ ♪ - Hey, guys.

- Hey.

- What's up, big man?

See you up and about.

How's the pain?

- It's not that bad today.

So I had surgery on my foot about a week ago now.

It was a problem that had been bothering me for a couple years but nothing too serious.

But I just decided to get it since we're in, you know, shelter-in-place right now.

- Dinner should be ready in, like, 35 minutes, guys, OK?

Cameron, are you still working?

- I wanted to check in on some kids real quick, because I haven't heard from them in a minute.

- OK, do you need us to be quiet while you're on a call with them?

- No, I'm not going to call them.

I'm probably just going to text them.

- OK. - I'm trying to keep track of all of my students, trying to make sure I don't lose any of them, sending text messages to, like, check in on them, see where they're at, making sure they don't drop off and just completely leave me in the dark and just be like, you know, I'm not applying anymore.

[indistinct chatter] - Just a little cheese?

- Yeah, at least when I have crackers, but-- - We do.

- We got tortilla chips.

No, we're out of crackers.

- Oh?

- We're all out of crackers.

I'm the only cracker in the house, guys.

[laughter] - Are you serious?

- [laughs] - I guess you're right.

- Yeah.

[upbeat music] ♪ ♪ - Thank you for the food we're about to receive and for the nourishments of our body.

In Christ's name, we pray.

Amen.

- Amen.

- Amen.

- Where you thinking about going to grad school?

- Have you narrowed it down?

- Yeah, I mean, I've solidified the list a little bit more to, like, five PhD programs and then, like, three master's programs, so... - The PhD programs, you'll finish faster than if you do a master's, right?

- PhD, you go straight in, and you kind of--a lot of them, you earn your master's on your way to your PhD.

So-- - A doctor.

- I mean-- - Dr. Cam.

Not Mr. Cam.

Dr. Cam.

- That's how I'm going to go too.

I'm going to go by Dr. Cam.

- That's crazy.

- You don't say.

[laughter] You don't say.

[laughs] I'm going to need some help this weekend with that fence.

- On this side?

- Oh, the gate?

- The gate.

- Wait, this weekend-- I might be here.

- Oh, you're going to be here.

- I mean, I already can't ask Cam, but it won't take long.

- Yeah, you know, I feel like this dude always gets out of everything.

- Out of something, bro.

- Are you serious right now?

- Yes.

- Yes.

- Every time, it's like-- - Are you serious?

- It'll be the weekend to clean the garage, and Cam's like-- - He's like, I'm in LA.

- Yeah, I gotta-- I'm going to go see Naomi this weekend.

- Yes.

You always do that.

- It always happens that way.

- I don't feel bad about it.

[laughter] I was doing this my entire life.

[laughter] - Funny, funny.

[birds chirping] [upbeat music] ♪ ♪ - You've got today and then two more classes to go over the unit overview.

Kadynce is amazing.

John, Bob... She also has a really firm sense of justice and fairness.

"Senator Betancourt" has a beautiful ring to it, and I cannot wait to see it happen.

This is not the verb phrase.

- Is it Arminist?

So I had Kadynce in advanced English, and now, I have her in just college prep English senior year.

- It's Arminist, right?

- This is what's called an adjective phrase.

This year, with distance learning, it's been extremely difficult.

- So is it Arminist, or is it going about?

- It's Arminist.

- That's what I said, Ms. Wallace.

- Yeah.

- I said Arminist first.

- Adjective phrase describes... - You can't really interact with your teachers.

You try to understand as much as you can.

So it'll be difficult for you to really engage and try to understand the subject.

- Those are what were found.

I think they feel extremely isolated.

And what's the subject?

What has been...

It's just so easy to just not even engage, not even turn the computer on, get into that mindset where nobody notices me, nobody cares.

And it can be really scary when you sort of know they've got things going on, mental health stuff.

That's been really scary.

- You have to be motivated to do the work, to get out of bed and open up the laptop and get to class.

You know, you think you could slip in a quick nap before the next class.

Next thing you know, you wake up, you're 20 minutes late.

And then thinking about colleges, college admissions, staying on top of that, SAT, it's just a whole lot.

It's too much.

You know, I'm trying to deal with it as best as I can.

- Verb and the passive subject is, first ask, what is the action of the sentence?

- This is my nephew Ryder, and this is my niece Shayla.

- Hi.

- This is my brother's house.

And then we're going to go through the side, and then we're going to go to my house.

Currently, I live with my mom in the backyard of my brother's house in a trailer.

This is the doorway to my trailer.

It's huge.

It's, like, the length of the house.

My mom chose that trailer because she wanted to feel like this is a home, like an actual house.

Before, I was living with my auntie, and that was for, like, a couple years.

And then before that, it was with my cousin.

Then over here, if you have family over or friends, we can play pool, shoot some darts.

We also have a tetherball over here.

Family is definitely really important.

We make sure that we take care of each other.

My room's the top one over there.

You can see my curtains are slightly out.

And then below that--right below that is my mom's room.

The kids like to play around here, and I like to work out.

I have my own little space where I would use my punching bag, use my weights.

These kids over here, they would, like, play around.

We have a basketball hoop.

Yeah.

It's my house.

[chimes tinkling] [computer chimes] - Good morning, good morning.

Welcome back.

I missed y'all so much.

So today we will be talking about college essays, right?

The personal insight questions and college essays.

Now, some of y'all have probably started.

Some of y'all may think you're even done.

I promise you, you are not, all right?

I'm sure everybody is on different pages, which is cool.

Y'all ready to do it?

Give me a yes in the chat if you're ready to do it.

So as you can see, there's eight words on the screen, right?

Think about which words y'all identify with.

And I want you to tell me which four you think represents you the best.

[computer chiming] Raven, I got "creative," "talented," "fighter," "resourceful."

Yes, I love whoever is giving thumbs-up to everybody else.

Interact with each other, y'all.

Come on, now.

Be each other's support system.

I can't be the only one supporting y'all.

"A leader, because in life, when it comes to any aspect "of life, from school projects and my family, I always step up."

Yes, you do, Javonte.

What are these words?

What do these have to do with the UC PIQs?

Each one of these is its own personal insight question.

And I'm just going to clarify again, the personal insight questions are the eight questions that are required for the UC system.

You don't have to write all eight.

We're going to get into it.

[light music] ♪ ♪ When you send it to me, I'm going to have some edits, and I'm doing it with the most love and humility that I can.

But remember, I've been trained on this.

I've talked to admissions people.

I've been trained by UCLA, UC Berkeley admissions people, OK?

So I know what they're looking for, and I know what a good essay looks like, all right?

Sharing screen.

- The personal insight questions are about getting to know you better.

We want to hear about your accomplishments, talents, interests, and experiences-- all the things that make you a great UC applicant.

- All right, I want y'all to please make an appointment, all right?

Thank y'all so much for showing up today.

I really appreciate y'all.

Happy Monday.

I know we are close to the end of the quarter, so please make sure your grades are looking good.

- Bye, Mr. Cam.

Thank you.

- You're welcome.

Bye.

[computer chimes] I didn't see Emily.

This is, like, one of the most important things for her application, and I'm really hoping that she's not discouraged or too overwhelmed.

I don't know what's going on.

You know, I don't like to assume.

I texted Emily a week and a half ago, and she hasn't gotten back to me.

So I really need to go ahead and check in on her.

It's so easy to get left on read.

- Tomorrow?

- Yeah.

- So you're going to go back for the whole week?

- Yep.

- That's good.

I mean, good and bad.

I mean, at least you finally got a job again.

- Here at Deer Valley High School, we're close to 60% socioeconomically disadvantaged.

And so with that comes a lot of challenges.

- Hopefully it doesn't get canceled.

- I know.

I do traffic control.

I've been doing this for a little more than two years.

And it's kind of tough, but you know what I mean, it is what it is.

It's a job.

I got to drive every Monday all the way down to Paradise.

That's where we work.

We do 11, 10 hours, depends.

It's all day.

And it's not easy for everyone, I think.

- With my dad and his job, it was hard on all of us.

He's our main source of income here.

And for him to not be working, it was like, you know, what are we going to do?

My mom and I make enough to pay the rent, but, like, what about food?

What about utilities?

What about, you know, Wi-Fi?

The girls need it for school now.

- I would say the pandemic just blew open the socioeconomic gaps.

- We have a lot of students who have to worry about, am I going to be able to stay in this house?

Is my family going to be good?

Would it be better for me to go work so I can supplement income?

And so they wear multiple hats at a very young age.

They're not allowed to just be a kid and focus on college.

- In the beginning of the virus, he just had a couple jobs, and like, it was once in a while, and it was enough to, like, sustain with the rent and everything.

So when he finally was able to get the job in Paradise and, like, going out there Monday through Fridays, like, it was a consistent job.

But with the pandemic, he's not sure when he's going to go back.

So it's just one thing after another.

It's like, we're never going to be certain.

- That is tough.

And a lot of our young people are experiencing the same thing.

- I've always been a very independent person.

But now it's like, all I'm doing is going from my bedroom to the kitchen, and then I go to work.

I work at Target.

I work in the front end.

It's really hard now, following COVID procedures.

It's only so much water you could buy, so much toilet paper that you could buy.

And it was times where people would literally cuss and get angry.

And it's like... - This year, we knew that education would be the last thing on the minds of some of our children.

And they have relatives who may have been sick.

And, you know, all kinds of issues were critical.

- And then it's like, I have to, like, think like my parents, how they feel with me, like, going to work and having to deal with hundreds of thousands of people that come in and out of Target every day from who knows where.

You just never know.

- As a college advisor, it's very tough because, you know, you want the best for your students and you want every student to succeed no matter what.

And then all these other things hit.

And now there are just more forces that you're working against to try and get these students to believe that they can get into higher education.

- You can't stop paying the rent.

You can't stop paying bills.

My kids, they just start working because they didn't have no school.

That's why they start working a little more, and helps a lot.

You got a little more money from everyone now.

It's not just me.

- We want to make sure that every student has an equal opportunity to get to wherever they want to go in life.

- Hey, Kadynce.

Happy Friday.

- The internet runs really slowly.

Is it loading or something?

Oh, no.

- [laughs] Oh, my God.

[computer chimes] This is too much.

- I don't know what happened, but I'm back, though, on my phone.

- I never even saw you leave.

That's the crazy part.

- So what you going to do with your life, Mr. Cam?

You going to still do this stuff for Deer Valley when you get accepted and you go to your schools next year?

- This is a full-time job.

Probably not.

- You'll be gone?

- This is two- to three-year fellowship.

So this is my second year, so... - Oh, so you about to be gone.

You out.

- Maybe.

We'll see.

We'll see.

- There ain't no maybe.

You know you going to be out.

You going to be rocking... - We'll see.

- At your schools.

- Hey, we live--in the world we living in right now, ain't no telling what's going to happen next year.

- That's what I'm saying.

- So two things I need you to do this weekend.

- All right, I'm ready now.

- First, look up the schools.

Put in your parent information into the CSUs.

- I don't even really know what I want to do in life anymore.

- What did you say?

- Do I really want to go to Spelman, though?

Do I really want to go outside of California, you know?

- See, you so flip-floppy.

I think, for her, it's really about building confidence.

You know, when she's kind of faced with certain things, she's just like, oh, well.

Like, that is her favorite saying, like, oh, well, like, you know, maybe this college thing isn't for me.

And I don't think she actually means it.

But I think, with a lot of students, it's like, trying at something and possibly not succeeding is really scary.

- What if I sit here and I do all this stuff, right-- hear me out.

Hear me out.

My ear right there.

Hear me out.

Just think about it.

If I sit here, I do all this stuff, right... - Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

- For nothing?

- But alternative point, maybe.

- Mm-hmm.

- You do all of this, right, and, like, you go to college.

- I guess so.

- Boom.

That's the plan.

- Right.

[laughter] Yeah.

OK. - All done.

Done for today.

Have an amazing weekend.

- You as well.

You as well.

Bye, Mr. Cam.

- Bye, Kadynce.

Talk to you later.

[computer chimes] - Well, I thought I was going to have a regular year, so I was just going to play a high school season and try to get some scholarships.

But, like, I don't know.

I don't think they're going to let us go back to school.

I don't think they're going to let us do anything.

Even if they lifted the home order, like, I still don't think they're going to let us do anything.

It's not looking like it.

But AAU is just-- it's more open.

- Many kids will look to keep playing with a club or prep team here in the Valley.

- Club sports has been traveling out of state with their teams just so they can play in competitive games.

[Andre Writer's "All Around the Bay"] ♪ ♪ [indistinct chatter] - ♪ Yeah, Richmond, Oakland ♪ - It's nothing like the competition.

When you're, like, going against somebody and you're all pumped up, like, the adrenaline rush, it's just--it's different than other sports.

I play on the travel team called Team Speights California.

We play locally, and then we play out of state once or twice a month.

- The AAU program is outside of any school.

We basically are a club team.

We travel.

We go to other states.

We travel throughout California, the West Coast.

Team S on 3.

1, 2, 3. all: Team S!

- Coach Reuben and his team, they're helping you get more looks for scouts for college.

So hopefully that goes down as expected and I can do it.

- We shut down for the first few months.

You know, we took precautions.

And we kind of gradually continue our process of trying to get these kids an opportunity.

Depending on the type of work that he puts in, Ahmad has a bright future.

He's very athletic, very quick.

Left, right, north, south.

He can move.

People have to build on those type of characteristics that Ahmad has by nature.

So that is a big plus for him, and I use him in that aspect with our team.

Ahmad, Ahmad!

Good talk.

Good talk.

What happened?

[upbeat music] Go get Derek.

Off the court, Ahmad is-- he's like a ray of fun.

We actually went out of state, and we had a ball.

We laughed, joked, clowned on each other.

He's a great kid.

♪ ♪ [indistinct yelling] [buzzer blares] - Way to play, boy.

What's up, boy?

Good game, good game, good game, good game, good game, good game.

Way to play, way to play.

[indistinct chatter] - First game back in a minute.

We started off bad, and we didn't get a chance to catch back up, so we lost.

- Ahmad was rusty.

You know, it's just as expected.

I'm just glad he got a chance to get out here and get the ball going, you know what I mean?

Get the wheels turning for him so he can get back into shape.

- Get together on our timing.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- Everybody out here, they say it takes 30 days of doing something repetitively to break a bad habit, to start something, OK?

And it looks like I'm going to have to get y'all 30 days straight to break some of these habits that you guys have.

And I'm trying to tell you what's going to help you in your career.

Because you are hella athletes.

This is why I'm constantly on you and I ride you.

Because you're too good.

There's no excuse.

None.

There is no, oh, well, maybe he lacks in this or he lacks in that.

You have no excuse not to be doggish every single game, especially when there's competition for you.

Oh, these dudes can play.

I got to go play too.

But I got to do everything.

That's what a player does, not a point guard, a shooting guard, small forward, power forward, center, but a player.

You got to play together.

All right, let's be all-around players.

Team S on 3.

1, 2, 3. all: Team S!

- I'm just trying to focus on working on my skills.

So if I get an opportunity to do something, just take it.

Everything, depending on the season, really.

- I'm really trying to be careful with Kadynce.

Last week, she was kind of in this place of, like, I don't even know if I want to go to college kind of thing.

She's persevered her whole life, and I want her to see that perseverance happens in an academic space too.

Just trying to keep them motivated to keep going.

It's really hard for me to navigate, but I'm not giving up.

[computer chimes] There she is.

- Hey.

- What's up, superstar?

What's the first application due from today?

- UC applications.

- Then that's the focus right now.

So let's look at that.

You sent it?

- No.

I'm trying to pull it up right now.

- All right.

- You're talking about the-- the PIQs, right?

- Mm-hmm.

- I really only have, like, one.

That's all the way at the end, though, more or less.

It's very much so less, but-- - We are at that point where we can start writing those.

- I have, I have.

It's just like, it's too much.

- We are on a time crunch.

You're going to have to come back during office hours.

- Oh, my gosh.

No.

No.

I was writing them.

- Mm-hmm.

- And then I was like, oh, my gosh.

I give up, I give up.

I give up on both of those.

- We can't give up on these.

We got, like I said, 12 more days.

Rather than just looking at the questions and trying to answer the questions, right, let's think about, what story do you want to tell?

What story do you feel like is important to your life?

Tell me about yourself.

Who do you live with?

- I live with my uncle, my auntie, and my cousins.

- Are your parents in the picture?

- My dad is.

He stays in Las Vegas.

- Oh, OK. - Yeah.

- Why do you live out here and he lives in Vegas?

- Because my granny has custody over me, so I stay out here.

- OK. - Used to stay with my granny, but then she-- she's staying at an old folks' home now, so I stay with my uncle.

- Got you.

Well, I've heard some very unique things that can very much be important to write about here, if you're willing.

What do you think?

- Yeah, no.

I don't see what you're talking about.

- I want you to realize, like, you have stuff to talk about.

And I know it's really hard to think about it, and I know it's even harder to write about it.

But you have all the potential in the world.

And these schools, they want to know about your life.

And it's up to you whether you want to tell them about it or not.

So I need you to do me a favor.

You think you can come to office hours today?

- [laughs] No, I'm not going to-- - Why?

- Because I'm taking a nap.

I'm tired.

- Kadynce, we got to talk about this.

And I can't have you just avoiding it forever, if this is what you want to do.

Can you promise me that you'll be there?

- Mm, OK. Sure.

Sure.

Sure.

Gotcha.

I'll be there.

- Thank you.

All right.

- All right.

- Talk to you soon.

- Bye.

[computer chimes] Do y'all see what he put me through every time?

- [sighs] - Oh, goodness.

[sighs] [birds chirping] [dramatic music] ♪ ♪ [keyboard keys clacking] ♪ ♪ - The personal insight questions are about getting to know you better.

Your responses will not hurt you.

They can only enhance our understanding of you as an applicant.

It's about sharing your personality, background, interests, and achievements in your own unique voice.

The best responses are those that are authentic and best represent who you are.

Relax.

Use your own voice.

- Question number four, describe how you have worked to overcome a barrier you have faced.

♪ ♪ [keyboard keys clacking] ♪ ♪ You don't want to spend your whole time thinking about what angered you or just affected you and made you feel bad.

You don't want to think about that.

♪ ♪ - We want to learn about your life experience so we can better understand you.

It's about sharing your personality, background, interests, and achievements-- so we can better understand you-- about your life experience-- about your life experience so we can better understand you.

It's about sharing your personality, background, interests, and-- ♪ ♪ - I'm struggling with pretty much everything.

At this point, I am over it.

♪ ♪ - I have not heard from Emily in a couple months.

From the looks of it, I don't think that she's doing the applications.

That's just me assuming, though.

I don't really know.

I'm going to check Emily and just see if she's been actually going to class.

It looks like she's been in and out.

She has all Fs in all her classes and a lot of missing assignments.

She had a lot of absences.

Yeah, she was going to class every day or most days.

But at the end of September and beginning of October, she started missing.

Yeah.

So like I said, it's probably a bigger thing.

♪ ♪ - [mumbling] Push OK. [mumbling] We just had report cards come out, like, last week, two weeks ago.

And basically, there was a lot of Ds and Fs on the report cards.

So I guess a lot of students aren't really doing well with this online learning.

Like, you know, we're just turning in assignments at this point.

Teachers and parents are doing... [mumbling] And nobody wants to stare at a screen for eight continuous hours.

[mumbling] It's a lot.

- 58% of the students in the entire school have at least one F. And if you break that down, that's three out of every five students, almost, has at least an F. And that doesn't include the Ds.

And my job for getting students on track for A-G requirements, which are the California college requirements, are making sure they don't have any Ds or Fs in their main classes.

- Basic reason for campaign finance regulation is to... [dynamic music playing] - We're seeing kids who didn't fail, who were on target to graduate, struggling with that right now.

♪ ♪ [gong crashes] - How is that wrong?

- And we're seeing that not just in our school.

It's nationwide.

- Too many students learning from home are failing.

That is the message from school leaders as they try to fix this problem.

- Schools across the country have reported more Ds and Fs since COVID 19 shut down schools.

- From technical problems to the lack of interaction with their teachers, and grades started to drop across the country.

- A sharp increase in the number of failing grades during virtual learning.

- Some parents fear their kids' struggles with virtual learning will impact their college hopes.

- [sighs] Where do I begin?

I am...

Concerned about where we are as far as serving students in the coronavirus pandemic now.

We are saying they're not engaging or, you know, they have their cameras off.

One of my students has an A in every single class and has an F in math.

That doesn't tell me that the student doesn't want to learn or that the student isn't trying or that the student isn't engaged.

It tells me that there's a problem with the way that we're serving the students, right?

I know we talked about how the coronavirus was going to exacerbate inequities, inequalities.

And this is an exact example with Deer Valley.

It's crazy right now.

And, you know, I don't really know what to do about it.

And I think that's one of the toughest things for me, being in my position, is that there has to be a different answer.

There has to be something else.

Because we cannot be in a space right now where we're just waiting for the next thing, we're just waiting for this to blow over.

Like, I think, when the dust settles, this is going to be really bad.

- Some parents fear their kids' struggles with virtual learning will impact their college hopes.

- So I just read this article that was in "The New York Times."

"The pandemic has changed everything "about the stressful admissions process, "adding even more strain on students, "forcing millions of students to learn remotely, "canceling college tours and standardized testing dates, "and preventing legions of students "from participating in sports and other "extracurricular activities.

"High school seniors and those who guide them through "the admissions process say the level of uncertainty "and disruption is off the charts, "putting more families in financial crisis "and making weighty decisions about the future more fraught than ever."

[dramatic music] [sniffles, sighs] I've never gotten emotional over this kind of stuff.

I think reading that kind of breaks down the walls a little bit and makes you realize, like, this is real [bleep].

[sighing] ♪ ♪ [dramatic music] ♪ ♪