New American hero shares his life challenges and successes

COLUMBUS – Cedric Jennings, whose story was documented in the best-selling book, “A Hope in the Unseen: An American Odyssey from the Inner City to the Ivy League,” will join the Ohio State University Young Scholars at the Samuel DuBois Cook Summer Academy on Wednesday (7/21). Jennings will speak at 1:30 p.m. in McPherson Lab, 140 West 18th Ave. The presentation is free and open to the public but space is limited.

He will discuss the challenges he faced as a student with potential in a suppressive inner city school district, and how he was able to rise above those obstacles as he went on to graduate from Brown University. In addition, at his request, Jennings will spend the day with the Young Scholars, who are on campus for Summer Academy from July 11-24. He will join them for classes, meals, lectures and a talent show.

Author Ron Suskin put Cedric Jennings’ true story together as a national best seller, “A Hope in the Unseen.” The book, which was inspired by Suskin’s Pulitzer Prize winning Wall Street Journal articles, is used in classrooms around the country as a tool to understanding struggle and a guide to successes “unseen”.

A primary mission of Ohio State’s Office of Minority Affairs is to offer services and programs that facilitate the achievement of urban youth at The Ohio State University. In this effort the university established the Young Scholars Program, which was developed in 1988 as a statewide model to increase the number of low-income students, including African-American, Latino/Hispanic, American Indian and Appalachian students in their pursuit of a college degree. Through partnerships with Ohio State and the nine largest urban school districts and communities in Ohio, the program nurtures the enormous potential of its students through academic, personal and career development initiatives.

WHAT:Cedric Jennings discusses his life challenges and successes with OSU Young Scholars, 200 high school students from nine urban school districts in Ohio.

WHEN: 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday (7/21).

WHERE: McPherson Lab, 140 West 18th Ave., on The Ohio State University campus.

WHY: The Summer Academy is part of the Young Scholars Program, the Ohio State
initiative to increase the number of urban, low-income students who attend college.