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PART ONE AX: (Katherine) There's school violence, there's violence in the community; there's just a lot of violence. I mean, you know it's very hard, especially for good kids to come to school, when you have all these- I don't want to say bad kids, but kids who disrupt everything. You know, there are kids who will just beat you up for no reason or target you, and then you, who didn't do anything- drop out- end up not wanting to go to school, because you have all these thugs running around, starting fights, trying to do their little gang activity in the school and um, having riots in the library, throwing chairs, constantly breaking display cabinets. You're living in this real stressed out environment. They just don't have the right, you know, of a safe education. NARR: Stevenson, like most New York City High Schools, does not often allow reporters in its halls. I was able to record the team, during after-school hours, step practices and competitions. Besides Katherine Brauer and the team's coach, Dionne Norton, two students, Victoria Walters and Anna Morales guided me into their world. AX: (Victoria) My name is Victoria Walters. I'm seventeen years old, in the eleventh grade. I go to Stevenson High School. It's all right. I've been there for three years, so I guess I am used to the fact that I go there now, but I'm just really anxious to get out. So I can just move on to college, cause they say that college is very different from high school and I would love to see how that is about. And I want to go, actually, I want to go to Alvin Ailey. It's a dance school, but if that doesn't happen, then I want to go to college. But I'm not sure what college yet. I do want to dance as my career, but then I don't. Cause I like math, too. So, actually, if dance doesn't come along, I want to be a math teacher. AX: I'm Anna, I'm a member of the step team. I'm a senior here
at Stevenson. NARR: Stevenson averages about eight violent assaults per month. So, twice a week at least one student is injured in a fight within the high school. So far no one has gone after Anna, a popular student at Stevenson. AX: (Anna) A lot of people know me and a lot of people like me. Because if I was somebody like, how they say? Soft. Y'know they would pick on me instantly. Like, I sell candy- being that I'm a senior and stuff. Lately, I've been hearing a lot of instances of seniors that like people will jump them for the candy and the box to get the money and that has not happened to me. Like I walk down the halls and I have my box open and the money is all over the place and nothing happens to me. AX: (Katherine) We have a school of like 3500 or so kids and we're graduating like 150. So many along the way drop off because of different life situations, different academic situations. Just, coming out of schools- elementary schools, middle schools with way too many kids. If you had any academic problems, they probably weren't picked up on. A lot of kids are above age for grade level. They really feel like they don't have success in school. NARR: Victoria is one of those students, despite her above 80 average. AX: (Victoria) My attitude was go to Stevenson, do what you got to do and get out. Because I got left back in the third grade, so I'm a little bit behind. So I was like, since I got left back one year, I'm not trying to get back- get left back again. I'm a little bit too old to be in the eleventh grade, but I know I will be graduating on time next year. NARR: Victoria often questions whether she has ever gotten enough support at home. AX: (Victoria) My mother was like into the drugs so much. My mother doesn't come to me and be like, 'do you need help with your homework, where's your report card at?' Um, she don't ask me no questions like that at all. Sometimes I think she really doesn't care. When I was young you never sat me down and taught me how to read, taught me how to do math or anything. You was into the drugs. And I was going to school struggling, but I guess it was my fault for not speaking up and telling her, but it was her job to sit down and do that with me. How are you going to send me to school and I don't know how to read. And I don't know how to say my ABCs and stuff like that. So, I was stuck, but I don't know how I made it this far sometimes. Like, I'm in the eleventh grade and from first to eleventh, how I actually made it? I be like, how. Sometimes I think was it pity? Was it because I have to get out and I'm too old? Is that it? Or is it because I actually did pass my test? NARR: Victoria and Anna are exceptions to the rule at Stevenson. Both will graduate after four years of high school. Anna makes fun of those who need more than five years to graduate. AX: (Anna) Oh Lord have mercy! The other day when we were taking the senior class picture out on the football field I was like 'c'mon half of you were in the 2003 picture! What's going on?' Like, I was making jokes and stuff. I mean, in my opinion, if you get held back once or if you graduate like half a year later or something, I don't see anything wrong with that cause some people do need an extra year to, you know, get out of high school and stuff. But once it becomes two or three years and you're like in your twenties and you're a senior, there's something wrong with you. Definitely, there's something wrong with you. NARR: Little more than one third of Stevenson students graduate within four years. While there are almost 1300 freshman at Stevenson, there are less than 250 seniors. But it is violence, not graduation rates, that makes headlines here. In January, Mayor Bloomberg named Stevenson to a list of 12 "at-risk" schools, effectively calling it one of the most dangerous in the city. While violent crime has been cut in half over the past decade in the Bronx, it's not reflected in behavior at Stevenson. AX: (Anna) I was reading the New York Post one day and they were talking about a girl that her father was suing the Department of Education for $10.5 million because she was coming from her gym class, going to her science class and about six or seven girls jumped her, like for no reason whatsoever. And that's something normal that happens- I mean not every day- but it's like when it happens you're just like 'oh. so did you do the homework?'. It's normal. You hear about it and you're like, 'whatever'. NARR: For the past ten years, when students walk in the door, they have to go through two big metal detectors in the entrance of the building. These detectors didn't prevent a young male student from bringing a gun into Stevenson last November. AX: (Nakina) The only reason he got caught is that he tripped. When he tripped, the gun showed. He got through the metal detector. So what's that going to do? Come on, please. There's all types of ways to get through the metal detector, they just don't know it yet. (laughs) AX: (Victoria) You cannot even bring a cell phone into Stevenson, so for you to bring a gun, you're real brave. I don't know how you was getting in, unless you were sneaking in through one of the exits. Even your boots ring! We have to take off our boots sometime and I really don't like that. It feels like we're in jail. AX: (Anna) I have to leave my house at 6:50 in order to get to the school on time. Because otherwise, I'll be stuck on the line that will reach out to the middle of the street, then when you go in, people are stupid, they don't want to take their hats off knowing they are supposed to take their hats off before you walk in, and don't want to take it off, so they hold up the line. Sometimes you have one scanning machine open and the other is closed and you got like about, 2,000 students coming in at once, it's hectic. It's really hectic. It's annoying and it frustrates people. NARR: Dionne Norton graduated from Stevenson three years ago in 2001. Now 20, she coaches the step team. She believes the overcrowded conditions contribute to the violence. AX: (Dionne) It's really crowded in here. It seems like there's 4000 students in this place and it's like, how are they getting to class. That's why I hate to walk in the hallways, when the bell ring cause all the kids are swimming out of the classrooms and you be like 'aw man, where am I going?', they get pushed to the side and I'm small, I get pushed to the side. You just have to fight people to get through the hallways and that's not cool. And with overcrowding, it causes fights and then fights causes other things. NARR: In packed halls, seemingly petty things cause fights. Anna's last fight was three years ago at her previous high school in Manhattan. AX: (Anna) That fight was (laughs) wow, that fight was because the girl that I fought, hardly no one in the school liked her so when I fought her everybody was like 'yay'. But um, she had said something about me and I confronted her about it. I was like, 'listen, if you have a problem with me, you come to me. You don't go to this, that, and the third person'. And as I walked away, she said something smart out of her mouth so I said, 'okay after school today, I'm going to get her'. And all my friends were ready and when she came out after school I hit her. I just hit her and we just started fighting. Fortunately I didn't get suspended- yay (laughs). Yep, that was the last fight, because once I got into high school I was taught that you know, especially in your senior year you can't afford to get suspended. Because in your senior year, everyday there's something going on, whether it's a deadline or a senior activity or something like that and when you miss three or four days, you miss a lot. NARR: Victoria's approach and reasoning for avoiding trouble has
been very different. PART TWO NARR: Both Anna and Victoria are members of the Soundz of Thunda, the Stevenson High Step Team. Step combines traditional African rhythms into complex routines. The team works in unison, often shouting chants while creating claps and stomps with their bodies. AX: (Dionne) We're just making beats with our hands and out feet and our bodies, nothing else. And even if you have like one person, fifty people- they all have to sound like one person in stepping. The sound is strong, like if you hear it and it's on the loud volume, you can make your heart pound. It's really supposed to be that powerful. So when we have shows and stuff I tell them, 'This is all teamwork, because if you don't work together, we can't go out there and sound like one person if we don't have teamwork. We gonna sound nasty, corrupting, ick and people are going to be looking at us, like "Ew, sounds of mess, ew!" NARR: Victoria, Anna and the rest of Soundz of Thunda use this physically grueling art form to release their stress and anger- practices are held every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. In fact, he after-school program is often the only thing that gets them to go to school in the first place. AX: (Anna) In school, I'm just sitting there looking at the clock and counting the periods- like today I have step, so let's see how many more periods I have to endure, like 1, 2, 3, you know. Like today I kept looking at the clock like 'oh brother, I want to go to step already'. NARR: The step team's regular practice space is in the school cafeteria. They rehearse before the janitors have a chance to clean it. AX: (Anna) The lunchroom is so dirty! (laughs) It's really, really big, but it is so dirty. I don't know what they do during lunch, cause I don't go to lunch. I don't know what those animals down there do to it, because when we come in to step- woo! I feel bad for the janitors. There's garbage and food and liquids and just everything all over the floor. The tables are sticky and they're just dirty. I'd rather practice in the gym or something. Especially in the gym because the floor gives you that sound, like an echo. (AMB: Sounds of hanging out in lunchroom) NARR: Soundz of Thunda members congregate in the lunchroom after school- talking, skipping double dutch and hanging out until practice starts. They learn intricate steps made up by Dionne or other team members, who learned to step in elementary and middle school. AX: (Dionne) Go under your other leg, the right leg. Tie your boot, Mama. Matter of fact… matter of fact hold on- to add on one more part… so you're going, so you go, 1-2-3. (does the step). Got it? NARR: Anna explains the different parts of the step as she learns it. AX: (Anna) Okay, we hop back onto the left leg, wait, yeah, we hop back onto the left leg and we clap under our right leg. Wow, I just forgot the step. (AMB: The sound of the step to that point) AX: (Anna) Um, we go under, first we start with the left leg, you go under the left leg, you clap under the left leg, then you clap under the right leg, you clap under the left leg. (AMB: Anna shows the step to that point) AX: (Anna) Um, after that we have to stomp with the left leg and clap under the right leg. AX: (Anna) Um, after that you clap above the thigh again and then you hit your- you bring your right foot back and you hit it. (AMB: Anna shows the step to that point) NARR: Dionne teaches Soundz of Thunda to step as one as they learn the step for the first time. She forces the team to repeat each section until they get it in sync. AX: (Dionne) Five, six, seven and… (AMB: Group steps, ends out of sync) AX: (SOT Member laughing) Sorry. AX: (Dionne laughing) Ready? One more time, five, six, seven and… (AMB: Group steps better this time) NARR: When individuals struggle, Dionne also gives each member one-on-one instruction. (AMB: Sounds of straggling stepping) AX: (Dionne) Got it Nayra? AX: (Nayra) I don't know. AX: (Dionne) Let me see, let me see… (Amb: Sounds of step) AX: (Rosemary) Step is like a dance. It's like a movement except with sound, passion, with happiness, with anger, with any kind of feeling you just have inside. It just flows out with your hands, with movement, with the stomps. AX: (Anna) It's filled with attitude, it's energetic. It's addictive. Like you use your body like its an instrument. You get the audience hyper, you get them like they want to get up and do it with you and they want to learn the step. AX: (Samantha) Cause that's how I take out my anger. I step. If I'm mad, I won't sit there like other people that'll scream or they'll hit the wall or something. I step and you know, that takes the anger out. Yeah, I'll be like yay- no more anger. NARR: After months of hard work, creating and perfecting their routines, they finally had their first competition in the end of December. They only know of a few step competitions- all held in the spring. Dionne searched for any kind of contest they could compete in. AX: (Dionne) We've just been networking and stuff like that and we've just been getting shows. But we was just real hungry, cause I felt like if I didn't get shows, I would disappoint them. NARR: She finally found the 50/50 Productions Talent Search in Harlem. The first prize winner would receive $500. AX: (Mariella) If we lose, I'm going to be a little bit disappointed. Not to sound greedy, but I think we should win. Cause we really need the money. AX: (Iris) So we trying to hustle, win the $500. You know it's not a lot, but to us it's a lot. Cause you know, we don't have no money right now, so we're trying to raise money for the group to get new uniforms. AX: (Anna) Appearance counts, you know what I'm saying. When a performer looks good, the audience gets a good vibe, so if we all look good, if we all match together, it'll be a good thing. NARR: Before having a shot to win the money, Katherine and Dionne had to find $15 entrance fees for each team member. Katherine scrambled to find money even as they arrived. AX: (Katherine) I hope nobody else comes, because I don't want to pay any more money. This is an expensive show. It's costing me so far $250. We're using the merged funds of my personal money and petty cash (laughs). NARR: The competition takes place in a community center auditorium on 127th St. in Harlem. The stage was so small, only half of the 20-team members performing could fit on it. AX: (Anna) It's ridiculous, I don't know how we are going to pull this off, but we are though. AX: (Nikina) We just want to smack whoever invited us here! (AMB: Team working to realign so they can fit on the stage) AX: (Nayra) The stage is too little and we don't have enough room to step the way we want to step. We got to scrunch up and change everything around because we don't have no room. This is pathetic. Paying $15 to watch a small stage, a small auditorium. It doesn't make no sense. I'm thinking it's going to be something big like Apollo. It's so small and cheap. (AMB: Sounds of "Simply The Best" performing) NARR: There were all kinds of performances, including one dance team performing to songs from the musical "Chicago". AX: (Nayra) They surprised me. They're really, really good. That's our competition. We got to stomp our foot off right now! NARR: As the team lined up behind the stage, they began to panic. AX: (Victoria- whispering) I feel real nervous. I never get nervous before a show. But I guess it was the group that went on before us, that kind of got to me. (whispers) but I'm all right. AX: (Dionne) Take it easy. Breathe. I know you are all going to get excited cause I'm nervous. Y'all nervous. I can feel it, I can feel the nervous energy. Take that nervous energy into like, like 'AAAH!' Y'all got to kill it. (Someone yells out 'Eat it!')Y'all got to eat it. (clapping) Y'all! If you mess up, don't stop! Keep going! (AMB: Cheers and yells of "Eat it!"). AX: (Anna) Once we are behind that curtain- positioned, that's
when everybody's like (breathes loudly) all right and everybody
is cool and then as those curtains pull away, it's over. That's
when the party starts right there. That is the most incredible feeling
ever. AX: (MC) Put your hands together for Stevenson's own Soundz of Thunda! (AMB: Cheers and the beginning of their routine) NARR: The team performed their hearts out. AX: (Victoria) I'm out of breath! I can't talk! AX: (Nayra) I feel good. I think we did the best. The best we could do. NARR: But those good feelings were overcome when the winners were
announced. AX: (Katherine in the din) I've had enough of this show. NARR: The team never received their second place trophy. They entered another show in the end of January. AX: (Dionne) We have a show at Club Scream and it's going to be put on the cable vision Channel 68 and it's going to be put on by Sex Boogie. If we win first, second or third, we get to be like, guest appearance. And we qualify for the ultimate show in December and win a cash prize. NARR: The reality was less than glamorous. AX: (Anna) First of all, we were pissed because they had us stepping outside for like 20 minutes- a half hour and it was freezing! It felt like it was below zero. Then when we get in, I always make fun of this, (AMB: sound of going through security) the guy that searched me, with the host of the show and security- what kind of- what is this? And then we get in there and it's like a club/karate/dance studio. I was like, what is this? Like it was so unorganized and so fake- it was just so- wires were hanging in the ceiling and I was like that's it, we need to leave, we need to go home. Oh brother, it just goes to show how low budget that place was, the microphones kept shutting on and off, the lights was bogus, everything was just messed up. NARR: Dionne tried to pull the team together by leading them in prayer. AX: (Dionne leading prayer) Bow y'all heads please. Alright, y'all. 2004, starting off the year. New year with a new snow, kinda ghetto and cold, but it's a new show. Hoping to win first, second, or third- any spot'd be good. AX: (Anna) I love that part, I think that's the most like, sentimental and intimate part of the whole step team. I love that part because we're all together. In a serious moment, not fooling around. We get in a circle and hold hands as we bow our heads and close our eyes and Dionne is usually the one who says the prayer. AX: (Dionne) We gotta pray to the Lord Above, for our talent, our
patience, our dedication to this, cause this is something different,
this is something new, and make sure that everybody know that black
youth can do something, black youth may not mean everybody, everybody-
black, Spanish, Asian, all that good stuff. Even though this stage
is small and we might fall through it, please give us the strength
and make sure that we show our talents to these people, to people
that think Stevenson High School students aren't worth anything.
Make sure that we show them that we are young youth and we are going
to do our thing. Be dedicated, be strong and we are going to do
this show. So on three, everybody got to say "One love, SOT".
One, two, three. AX: (Emcee) Make some noise for the Soundz of Thunda! (Cheers and
Screams) NARR: This show was supposed to work like American Idol, with Bronx cable viewers at home voting for the best performance. The team performed well. But no winner was ever chosen and the team never even saw the show. AX: (Anna) They told us we were going to be on the air two weeks from that date and they usually air their new episodes Tuesday nights at ten. So, like, two Tuesdays after the performance we were checking the TV and we never found it. And I think it was Shada' who came to step and told us her friend saw us, but she saw us on like a Wednesday morning. Or something like that. I was like, I don't even want to see it, forget it. I don't want to see it. I don't care if we won or not. I really don't, just whatever, we did it, we did it, that was it. NARR: Victoria didn't compete in this show. She had missed two practices; one for a job interview and the other because of problems at home. She came for her team anyway. AX: (Victoria) For support and I love them. Just because I'm not performing doesn't mean I don't need to see them. Win or lose either, they could do either or, but I know I still love them and whatever happens today happens. It had to happen for a reason. Part Three NARR: Victoria's problems with her mother at home have escalated. She even moved out for a while. Coach Dionne Norton says Victoria's situation is not unique. AX: (Dionne) It seems like they are going through more stuff than I ever thought they would or that I went through at my house. A lot of them say they have problems at home, like, I want to get into it, but I'm not a counselor, so I don't want them to tell me more than they have to. Or more than I can chew and I still think, wow, I can't help you with that. NARR: Victoria's childhood was full of upheaval. Her father died when Victoria was five years old. She never knew her biological mother, who was in jail and died when Victoria was 11. She lives with her paternal aunt sharing the social security checks she received after her mother's death. AX: (Victoria) I've always lived in the Bronx. Actually I was raised on 174th and the Concourse right by Bronx Lebanon Hospital and we got evicted for a drug problem, right now we're on University and 170. I guess I got to deal with it. (little laugh) NARR: They were evicted in the winter of 2002. AX: (Victoria) Actually in my house it was me, my brother, my mother and her boyfriend- my stepfather, I call him my stepfather. They'd been together for 15 years, but the whole thing was my mother was so into the drugs that it caught up with us, like the drugs was taking over her. This man, I'll call him my Godfather, and he used to come and like cook up the cocaine and stuff like that and it was to a point that she would just let him do it, then he'd do it everyday or when he had a chance and then he'd give her some cocaine, like here. Like that, but he never, ever, left me out. He always made sure I had food and clothes on my back and I love him for that. And even though I was surrounded by all that, I will still give him respect today, even if we did get evicted. But it wasn't because of him, it was because my mother was letting the drugs take over her. Cause we got our house busted in once, we can't let this happen to us again. But it happened, two, three times, and we got evicted. So now we're struggling to get an apartment now because my brother has a one bedroom. And my mother sleeps on the couch and my brother sleeps on the bed because he actually turned the living room into a room. Because his bedroom was set is too big for the room that I sleep in. So actually I sleep in the room, but I sleep on the floor. So, it's like I don't really want to be there because of that. NARR: Victoria's volatile home situation hit its crisis last summer when she moved out briefly. After a month she returned. But then, one day, her Aunt gave her money to buy a camcorder- and Victoria used some of it to buy fast food. AX: (Victoria) I was going to pay her back her money but she got mad. Because I took a couple of dollars of her money and bought some food. I really thought that wasn't necessary because when I was growing up, she took all my money, she used to take all my money. Everything that I used to own she used to take it like, oooh, you got some money and she used to take it and never , ever pay me back. {So I was like, I said 'I fucking hate this house'. And I wanted to leave right then and there, but I didn't. So she hit me upside my head. And I actually didn't mean to hit her, it was just a reflex. So I hit her in her face not once, but twice because she hit me because I took money to get something to eat, but you used to take money to go buy cocaine and stuff. NARR: Victoria will always wonder what could have been if her parents hadn't died. AX: (Victoria) Maybe if they was living and I was actually raised with them, I don't know how my life would be, but I assume my life wouldn't be like this. I really do- I actually think that it would be better. NARR: Victoria's story is not out of the ordinary. AX: (Katherine) Lots of kids come from single parent homes, lots of kids face issues of not getting along- like any teenager- with their parents, with mother's boyfriends, with stepfathers... Lots of kids... have experiences with homelessness, of being kicked out of their house, not getting along with family members, too many family members in too small of quarters, in families who are constantly everybody's working, everybody's overstressed, there's never enough money or food, some kids have drugs in the home, many of our kids are in foster care, in group homes, in kinship foster care, in places where people don't want them. NARR: Mariella Diaz is one of the kids Katherine is talking about. She just hit her crisis point and is virtually homeless. AX: (Mariella) Within a couple of weeks, I got arrested twice for trespassing. I don't think it was right that they had to take me in, because I was just visiting. So when you're visiting, it's not really a crime, but they they um, said I was trespassing, so they took me in and I had to stay there for like 8 hours and they took me out at 2 o'clock in the morning. I had to walk from Throg's Neck all the way over here and I didn't get home until like 5 o'clock in the morning and then the bad thing about it is when I got home, my Mom threw me out of the house. She's always getting on me about being short and that I'm not going to amount to anything and like, she's always putting me down. I don't like it when people put me down cause that gets me you know. When I was younger, I was, like, really insecure, but like I'm working on it because that helps me become a better person. If I'm stuck to being insecure, nobody's going to want to be around me. You know, and I had to learn that the hard way. NARR: In April, she will be leaving the team- and the Bronx to go to Buffalo. There' she'll attend an alternative living and educational program called Job Corp. AX: (Mariella) Job Corp is another school, it's like another school, they pay you to go to school everyday, like an allowance. The ages is 16 to 24 and you can get either your GED or your high school diploma. Um, they help you pick a career, they have job trainings while you're going to school. They have like, dorms and stuff, it's like college and I get to see different people and I don't have to be so stressed out, because I'm not going to be here anymore or with my Mom. I could graduate in less than six months. And I'm pretty proud of that because if I stay here, I'm going to graduate in two years. I can't really blame the school that much, but I don't know, when I am here I can't focus. I really can't. I don't know how other people could do it. I guess it's cause I have so much problems at home then I have to deal with it going to school and have to being that back and forth so I mix the personal stuff with like school. NARR: For the remaining team members, the daily violence at home and in school- often spills over into the team's performance. AX: (Anna) It's a problem when Dionne is talking and then everybody else wants to talk while she's talking and then we don't get things done. I get aggravated and that's about it. (AMB: chaotic practice, people speaking over Dionne) Like before, I mean, everyone used to come to step every- every time we had step and people like, showed an interst in it and they put effort into the steps and now, people are just doing what they want, hanging out and thinking they don't have to do certain things and you know, coming in whenever they want and just silly stuff that needs to be fixed. NARR: One day, Sophomore Nakina Henry and Freshman Thea Gamble had an altercation that derailed an entire practice. Anna said it had been brewing for a while. AX: (Anna) A few minutes ago, Thea and Kandiss were outside sitting on the window sill practicing, I think a gospel song, and while they were practicing, Nikina walked over there and playfully said to them, 'oh you two can't sing' and Thea took it out of proportion and like, she though that Nikina was being serious and I guess a few words were exchanged and when they came in here, Nikina basically told Thea, AX: (Nakina) I'm just letting you know, I'm going to let you know the truth- I don't like you, I don't. Just chill with me, yo- keep your distance, please. Catching an ill attitude. I'm like, yo, and she knows she has an attitude problem and mad people in here don't like it. AX: (Anna) Thea just sat there. Thea did say people don't have to like me. NARR: So Anna tried to lighten the tension. AX: (Anna) This is like the fifth time, she still in the same spot,
too. She comes back to the same box! I don't like you… cause
she's stupid. AX: (Dionne) Because we a team, this is what I call a family. I've been building this since 1998, you hear what I am saying? So, if there is something wrong, with your brother or sister, you need to tell me period, because if I hear from anybody else and not from your mouth, guess what? I'm having an attitude. Cause if you don't want to be here, I don't want you here. This is all about a love, a passion for the step thing. NARR: Katherine believes that by being part of the step team and learning how to work out problems non-violently, these teens have a better chance of succeeding. AX: (Katherine) I think that the kids who are on the step team.. have already made steps so much farther than, you know, than other students. Especially since they are so close to graduating- that Anna's going to graduate and Victoria's probably going to graduate next year. They've made it that far. I see them as they have overcome so much adversity.. so many people have not had to face the kind of stuff that they have overcome, so you know, I think they have so much potential to be successful. Yeah, I'm sure they will be. NARR: Anna wants to be a television news reporter. She dreams of working for New York 1. But first, she is trying desperately to get on MTV's "The Real World", a reality show featuring young adults living together in a house in a major city. AX: (Anna) I want to be on it because it'll be a challenge for me and it'll be something different that I can experience. Because first of all, I'll be around a different set of people that I've never been around before, so you know, I'll be somewhere else besides the Bronx. I'll get out of the Bronx for a while and experience the world and maybe learn things that I can't learn here. Because here, you walk out the door. All you see is black, Puerto Rican and Dominican. I'm sick of that, you hear what I'm saying? I mean, honestly, the only white people that I have ever known in my life are my teachers. That's not, you know, that's not cool. I want to go somewhere where I'll be roommates with people who I have never interacted with in my life on a level where they're like my friends, not somebody that I have to, you know, listen to or something like that, you get what I am saying? That would be cool. NARR: For Victoria, lack of familial and financial support means making tough decisions to prepare for her future. In March she decided to quit the team to take an after school job. AX: (Victoria) I really need the money and a lot of stuff is coming up and then I need outfits for dance class, so. And me and my mother don't get along, so I don't ask her for much. So, I'd rather just go out and make it on my own. NARR: But for Anna, remaining part of the step team will keep inspiring her to excel. While half of the 200 some Stevenson Seniors will graduate, Anna and the five other seniors on the step team will get their diplomas in June. All are planning to go to college. AX: (Anna) We all just have to stick together, cause that's the only way we'll survive here- it's just we stick together and um, you know, just support each other basically. (Amb: Step routine running underneath- into applause) NARR: Despite their school's dangerous reputation, their neighborhood's troubles and personal struggles, many on the Soundz of Thunda step team will continue to fight to step out of the Bronx. Jodi Breisler, Columbia Radio News.
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