E-mail a friendHeavy D
airdate June 1, 2005
Heavy D is respected in the music and acting worlds. A successful crossover artist in hip-hop's early years, he made demos in junior high. With his childhood friends, he formed Heavy D & The Boyz - the first artists signed to Uptown Records. He segued into acting and demonstrated both comedic and dramatic skills in such films as Life and Cider House Rules, the acclaimed play Riff Raff and recurring roles on TV in Living Single and Boston Public. He's set to star in a new stage production, Medal of Honor Rag.
Heavy D
Tavis: I'm pleased to welcome gifted high school students Theo Milonopoulos and Rachel Elise Rizal to this program. The two were among a select group named recently by "USA Today" to the All-USA High School Academic Team. Theo is a senior at the Campbell Hall School just up the road from this studio in North Hollywood, California. In the fall, he's off to Stanford. Rachel attends Gretchen Whitney High in Cerritos, south of Los Angeles. She had a lot of traffic to get here, I'm sure. This fall, she's headed off to Princeton. Theo and Rachel, congratulations to both of you.
Rachel Elise Rizal: Thank you.
Theo Milonopoulos: Thanks.
Tavis: Glad to have you on the program.
Milonopoulos: Absolutely. Great to be here.
Tavis: So, where were you, Rachel, when you got the phone call--or how'd they contact you--to let you know that you were in the first team...-first team of the top 20 students in all of America.
Rizal: I was in my French class, and my principal said, "Rachel, come with me right now," and he took me into his office.
Tavis: Did you think you were in trouble?
Rizal: Yeah, actually, I was. I didn't know what to expect. I didn't know what to expect.
Tavis: Right.
Rizal: And then he's like, "Wait a minute," and he called somebody up on the phone, Tracy Brigs, and she's like, "I'm glad to congratulate you because you've made the 'USA Today' First All-American High School Team." And I was like, "Oh, my gosh," and my counselor suddenly came in, and a lot of teachers came in, and they were there to congratulate me.
Tavis: Let me guess, you have a, mm, 4.0 grade average.
Rizal: Yes. That's right.
Tavis: That's what I thought. Yeah, yeah. I'm not impressed. I had one of those, too, in one class. Theo, congratulations to you.
Milonopoulos: Thank you very much.
Tavis: So, where were you when you heard the news from "USA Today"?
Milonopoulos: Well, I was just at school, and the principal called me in with my counselor, and it was--it was just an amazing experience. When I was there, I never expected it, and, you know, I'd just been applying for scholarships just, you know--I've got a twin brother, so my parents are going to have to pay for the both of us the whole way through.
Tavis: Identical or fraternal?
Milonopoulos: We're fraternal.
Tavis: Fraternal twins, OK.
Milonopoulos: But every little bit helps when you're racking up those dollars.
Tavis: Let me guess your grade point average is what, 4.0?
Milonopoulos: Yeah, that's it.
Tavis: Yeah, something like that. Wow. I'm feeling real stupid right about now. Ha ha! I may be in too deep in this conversation. So let me get the obligatory questions out of the way. What do you want to study at Stanford?
Milonopoulos: I'm looking to study international relations.
Tavis: Tell me why. What moves you about international relations, as such a young guy?
Milonopoulos: What the situation in the world now, where we've got nuclear proliferation and where countries are torn apart by war, we really need to move beyond the terror state that we find ourselves in and really shine through, moving towards more international peace.
Tavis: Mm-hmm. You and your brother have been involved in a lot of work here in the city, specifically as it relates to gun control.
Milonopoulos: Yes.
Tavis: Tell me about your work on gun control issues.
Milonopoulos: My brother and I co-founded an organization when we were 11 years old called Kidz Voice-LA, and we're a violence prevention organization that lobbies for gun control initiatives at the local, state, and federal levels, and we've been successful in helping to ban the sale of .50 caliber snipers rifles in Los Angeles, and we've worked on some bills at the state. We also have been successful in getting the city council to introduce a motion to ban the sale of all gun ammunition in the city of Los Angeles.
Tavis: Do you have a driver's license, Theo?
Milonopoulos: Uh, no, actually, I don't.
Tavis: Do you have any I.D. on you?
Milonopoulos: You know, I have my passport. That's what I carry when I travel, just because I haven't had time to get my license.
Tavis: I'm asking because I don't believe Theo's 18. I do not believe that Theo is a high school student with those kinds of passions already, but I'm glad to hear that. Rachel, tell me about what you want to study at Princeton.
Rizal: Well, I want to be a heart surgeon when I grow older, so I'm gonna take all my pre-med classes at Princeton, but I want to join the Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy.
Tavis: Oh, sure. It's a great school.
Rizal: And I want to join that--or be in that concentration because it's very multidisciplinary, so I'm very involved, or I'm interested in not only science, but also humanities as well.
Tavis: Tell me more about how you spent your time on the extracurricular front over your last four years in high school.
Rizal: Well, I was in sports. I was involved in my school soccer team, and I'm very involved--
Tavis: You're the one I've heard--oh, I'm glad you said that. Let me slide this way a little bit. Are you the one that I read is, like the top in tae kwon do?
Rizal: Yes. I've won two gold medals the past two years at the Junior Olympics for tae kwon do.
Tavis: Wow. How did you--OK, You're not gonna chop me or anything, right?
Rizal: No, no. I said I'll play nice today.
Tavis: I'll slide back. You play nice today. So, tell me how you get into tae kwon do. What pulled you in that direction?
Rizal: I actually started from my friend Uwemio Anelli in eighth grade, and I just joined her stepdad's studio, and I just liked the whole competitive aspect of it, so I just kept fighting, and soon I got really into sparring. In the past three years, I've been very competitive, and I definitely want to continue tae kwon do in college.
Tavis: Mm-hmm. All right, for all you guys at Princeton, get a good look at this face right here. Be careful when you push up on Rachel. Just know she got two gold medals in tae kwon do when she comes that way this fall. Theo, tell me what your assessment is of American high school students today, where their academics are concerned. Clearly, you, the two of you represent the best and brightest that we have, but I'm not surprising you, of course, with the fact that there's a lot of conversation in this country right now around President Bush's No Child Left Behind and what we can do to improve education and the results, I should say, for high school students. What's your sense of how smart or how dumb you guys are these days?
Milonopoulos: Well, I think we're at the brink of a new generation, Tavis. I think that we have it in ourselves, we have the potential to do great things, and I think that it shows with the number of students that are willing to volunteer across the nation. It shows with the amount of students that are getting involved in extracurricular activities that go beyond the classroom, and I think that that's really where the fertile ground is for education is to take those experiences not just inside the classroom, but take them outside the classroom. Get involved by lobbying down at your city council. Get involved by just simply registering to vote and voting regularly in an election. I think that those are the keys, those experiences that go beyond the textbooks that are really helping shape our future.
Tavis: Unless I misread, are you both at public high schools?
Rizal: Yes.
Milonopoulos: No. I'm at an independent school.
Tavis: You're at an independent school. You go to public school.
Rizal: Yeah, but we're a magnet school from seventh to twelfth grade.
Tavis: You're a magnet school. Right. Tell me what you think high schools are doing right these days, Rachel, and give them some advice. What could they do better in high school these days?
Rizal: I think what high schools could do better is to inspire kids to follow their passion more, not concentrate so much on, "Oh, you have to get into college," but inspire them to follow their passions. I think what high schools are doing well is that they're focusing on many disciplines, and I think having a cross between all sorts of studies helps people find what they're really interested in. And there's levels of, you know, maybe I want to take harder science classes as opposed to easier English classes, and I think that's a great option for high school students today.
Tavis: Tell me how you at such a young age have--when I asked you what you were gonna do at Princeton, and you immediately had an answer. Theo immediately had an answer. I was kind of like the two of you. Well, not the 4.0, but at least, by the age of 13, even, I pretty much knew what I wanted to do, and I've always argued that if you can get started early, by knowing what your passions are, you've got more time to develop and work those passions out. So, tell me how you discovered what your passion was so early?
Rizal: Well, I think ever since I was a little kid, I was very involved in science, and when I went into Mrs. Perry's class in tenth--I mean, ninth-grade biology honors and we started learning about the nervous system and the circulatory system, I just got really interested into medicine, and I followed that up with doing lab research at UCI under Dr. Rita Brockman.
Tavis: That's amazing. That turned me on, too, the nervous system, the circulatory system. That really got me interested. Just kidding. Theo--I'm glad it did for you, though. Tell me how you discovered your passion so early on.
Milonopoulos: Well, for me, it was really borne out of a fear of being shot. When we were...-when my twin brother and I were 11 years old, there was the North Hollywood bank shootout, where two criminals went and fired, you know...
Tavis: In the middle of the street.
Milonopoulos: It was the middle of the street. Hundreds of rounds of ammunition in a little less than 45 minutes. And when schools are locked down and storefronts are being destroyed, it was really--it was really a scary experience for me, and just...-you know, also the Ennis Cosby shooting, the son of Bill Cosby, was a block from my school. And so it was as all these school shootings started erupting across the country, I realized that I needed to do something, my brother and I needed to do something to combat this violence, and I think that that's the key. I think that kids can see a problem and can address it. All you have to do is just give them the tools to do that, and that's why I'm a big fan of not only, you know, getting out there and getting involved, but also taking-- challenging yourself academically. I think that those are important resources to keep in the schools.
Tavis: Let me give you both 20 seconds apiece to tell me whether or not you are hopeful about your generation.
Rizal: I'm hopeful. I think there's a lot of great people out there who want to change the world.
Tavis: Theo, are you hopeful?
Milonopoulos: Oh, absolutely. I think we have an amazing amount of potential that we can do to...-as long as we can keep getting kids involved and finding their passions, I definitely think that we can change the world.
Tavis: I'd be fascinated to have you guys come back on the program in four or five years, assuming that I'm still here. You never know how these things work out, but assuming that I'm still here and this fledgling career doesn't end up in the abyss or in the tank somewhere, I hope you'll come back in four years after you've finished your studies. Maybe you guys, you may be done in two years. Who knows? But in four years, I'd love to have you come back and let me know how it went at Stanford and Princeton and what the next stages are.
Rizal: No problem.
Milonopoulos: Absolutely.
Tavis: Congratulations to both of you.
Milonopoulos: Thank you very much.
Rizal: Thank you.
Tavis: This is Theo Milonopoulos--remember the name--and Rachel Elise Rizal. Remember that name as well. I am certain you're going to hear more from these young folk in the coming months and years. Congratulations again.
Rizal: Thank you.
Milonopoulos: Thank you very much.
Tavis: Glad to have you on. Up next on this program, hip-hop pioneer turned actor, Heavy D. Stay with us.
Back to June 1, 2005