(School bell rings) (Students sit in a classroom) I got a question for y'all.

When people hear your name, what do you want them to think about you?

Hard work and being nice.

I want them to know I was fresh, I ain't gonna say.

I want them to know, like, she was a leader and she tried her best.

She put her best foot forward no matter what, and she was never comfortable.

At all.

I would say, hmm, Chosen, one of the ones.

I got a lot of stuff and I stood on business.

What's your GPA?

3.9.

Number 4, that's right.

Miss Lipton, guys.

I said, uh, man, it's just an amazing young man, bro.

Nothing bad.

I don't think nobody ever gonna have nothing bad to say about me, though.

We not just bad.

I got a goal.

I have a lot of goals.

We had the palace, we had saints, we had angels, we had cody's, we had the limelight, we had the spotlight.

So we had all of these places that we could go be teenagers at, we could go be kids at, right?

So in the city, right, what's something you would want to see changed for your, for kids your age now and in the future?

For me it would be more of those like Meet up spots that y'all had if I could stay here I would and go to Wash U Wash U is a great medical school in the city of st.

Louis I would consider staying here and going to SLU for law.

I want to go to SIUE They got a really good nursing program 20 years from now y'all will be about my age (Laughter) 20 years from now, y'all will be above my age.

We're not gonna be kids forever, and soon enough we're gonna be grown.

We're gonna be alongside you or in front.

Hopefully in front.

That's the goal.

The goal is always that y'all be better than we were.

So hopefully in front.

So I am Dr.

Echols, licensed clinical social worker of 8th Dimension Wellness Center, and I provide behavioral health therapy here at Lift for Life Academy.

My name is Mike Jones.

I guess title would be entrepreneur.

I own several businesses within the St.

Louis community.

Started the OTM club here at Lift for Life about five years a I'm also the alumni director of Cardinal Ritter.

I think it'll do the city a great justice to hear straight from the mouth of these talented and smart and opinionated scholars we have here.

So when you think about St.

Louis, what are your thoughts about it?

Good, bad, right, wrong, and different.

I'm a lifelong resident.

Like I said, I grew up here, born, raised, everything else.

So I got my thoughts, but I'd love to hear y'all thoughts on it.

From the outside, you might think it's bad because what you hear around it, but it's low-key good.

You know, it teach you how to really grind.

It teach you how to really level up and just stay out the way and focus on your dreams and just work hard.

I just say one word, it's misunderstood.

Just misunderstood.

It's a war zone.

You're in survival mode when you're, you know what I'm saying?

You can't just walk out and just do whatever you want whenever you want to do it.

You hear gunshots at night time a lot.

You know what I'm saying?

I'm in North County and I hear them, you know what I'm saying, all the time.

And I just stay in the house.

Our city needs help.

And I think the stats show that I think waking up in my neighborhood isn't bad as, you know, a certain side, like a South side or, you know, a North side neighborhood.

I think St.

Louis builds character in the people that reside here.

When you look at all the bad that's happening, it makes you want to do good.

I agree.

You know, they do say pressure makes diamonds.

Like if there ain't no pressure.

What goal do you all have for yourself?

I want to go to college for out of state and once I'm financially stable, I want to get back to my community to help my mama.

Go to college and actually finish college because in the black community, a lot of people don't finish because of like, they face an adversity.

I want to go to college for nursing.

To break generational curses within my family, for myself, and my siblings that I have.

Think about what it would be like to play ball without having to think about a scholarship.

Like have you even fathomed the thought of playing ball just to play ball?

For the love of the game.

Just for the love of the game.

Yeah.

Right.

Cause y'all are 16, 17, 18, right?

I do want our black kids to be able to experience joy in our activities.

Yeah, I just started doing fashion.

I love basketball.

Like, let's not get that twisted.

I went into refereeing to study the game.

Like, I don't see myself refereeing basketball in the future, but I use it as a tool to understand as the ref.

There's something very therapeutic about running.

When you run it, all you focusing on is your breath.

I love wrestling.

Yeah, I love cooking.

What's your dream?

Play ball.

Play ball.

Be successful.

To reach my end goal and my calling under God.

To have a peaceful life.

Buy my mom a house.

Period.

Period.

Thinking back about school, what is the best part of school?

They just want us to thrive.

It doesn't feel like a high school.

It feels like I'm here and they're pushing me to be the greatest that I can be.

This is not a paid advertisement.

(Laughter) When I say school safety, what does that mean to y'all?

Being able to walk into a building and not have a target on your back.

Like if I can walk into school and not have to worry about getting stole off on, I'm good.

If I can walk into school and I see that they have security teams and they have people put in place to protect me, then I feel good.

For me, being the oldest, it's a lot of me.

So it's like you have expectations that you got to feel.

I want to make sure I'm surrounding myself with people who actually want a success in life, who actually want something in life.

So the thing we've had that's coming through, through every, almost every answer we have, is just community.

Yes.

Community, feeling like home.

That's what the city is.

Yeah.

You know, we, we're, no matter Cardinal Ritter, Lift for Life, Sumner, McClure, wherever, it's still St.

Louis.

Right.

It is.

Hi, my name is Phoenix Isaiah.

Armani Howard.

Madison Outlaw.

I'm Taylor J. Shivers.

My name is Ayanna Wortham.

Jayla Goyne-Sweat.

James Harris.

I'm Jordan Reed.

Go to lift for life academy, I'm a senior.