Where are they now? Cedric Jennings '99

The story of Cedric Jennings, a young man who made it from a ghetto in the nation’s capital to the campus of Brown University, has been in bookstores more than four years. A Pulitzer Prize-winning Wall Street Journal reporter detailed Jennings’ struggle in “A Hope in the Unseen.” The George Street Journal’s Kristen Cole recently spoke with Jennings about the unchronicled path his life has taken since he received a Brown degree in 1999.

The book that captured every detail of Cedric Jennings’ transition from an inner-city high school to the Ivy League ended before he graduated from Brown. So it may not be surprising that last year, when a Harvard professor cited Jennings’ story of struggle against the odds, the professor was short on details about what had happened to Jennings since he graduated.

“I heard he’s not doing well now…he’s working at the Gap,” the professor reportedly said. Jennings, enrolled in Harvard’s one-year master’s in education program in risk and prevention at the time, heard the anecdote and e-mailed his “greetings” to the faculty member.

After graduating from Brown nearly four years ago, Jennings spent two years working in the private sector before returning to school – exactly the timeline he had mapped out before exiting the Van Wickle Gates.

He went first to Harvard, where, as part of his master’s requirements, he served as a counselor in a middle school in a depressed area of Boston. He then went to the University of Michigan for a second master’s in social work, a program in which he is now enrolled.

What has he accomplished since leaving Providence? “I’ve put myself in further debt,” Jennings says with a laugh.

The book that made Jennings a presence in the national media is still a presence in his life. His five Michigan courses are scheduled so that two days are always free for speaking engagements.

High school and college students remain interested in “A Hope in the Unseen.” “I bring the book to life,” said Jennings. “I motivate people to appreciate what they have.”

A lot of good has resulted because of the book, said Jennings. One negative that occasionally arises is people who attempt to argue with him that they endured tougher times and have a more remarkable story.

Although the book put Jennings in a sometimes difficult position of poster boy for overcoming the odds of inner-city life, the middle school counseling job taught him not to assume he knew what students were going through just because of his background, he said.

In the near future, Jennings would like to publish some of his own writing. He is researching the effectiveness of college preparatory programs and is considering a separate project about bridge programs in colleges – two subjects he knows firsthand. The next chapter of his life may include a doctoral program, he said.

Author Ron Suskind stopped shadowing Jennings just before the young man began his sophomore year at Brown, but the two still talk. Frequently, Suskind – who is now working on another book – will receive and forward messages to Jennings, usually when people have difficulty tracking down the Brown alum.

The Harvard faculty member who cited Jennings’ story in his class has gone on to another institution, just as Jennings has. Jennings said that he forgot to mention to the man that he did have an interview with The Gap for a corporate buyer’s position before he graduated from Brown, but he was not hired.