When they began, many of the younger students were reluctant to learn, Mr. Smith recalled. They knocked books off the table and stole other students’ food, anything to avoid the work ahead. By the second year’s end, they were greeting Mr. Smith in the hallways with the same books in hand.
Sheldon Johnson, 13, a Delany Scholar in middle school, recounted a live performance where the students learned the life story of Martin Delany, a renowned abolitionist, onetime Pittsburgh resident and the program’s namesake.
It was stirring to watch their hero’s journey come to life, adding that the show made it easier for him to imagine following in Mr. Delany’s footsteps, Sheldon said.
Both students said the program brought them together with some of their closest friends at school. Between after-school sessions and academic outings, the boys formed bonds grounded in a shared ambition: to go beyond what the world expected of them.