Ron Suskind's 1998 book "A Hope in the Unseen" focuses on the remarkable tale of Cedric Jennings '99, an African-American student who matriculated to the University from an impoverished inner-city community in Washington, D.C.
Nearly 10 years after the book was published, Jennings recalls the pivotal role the University played in shaping his future successes.
"It was critical for me to attend Brown because my foundation began there," he said. "I grew into the person who I am from my experiences at Brown, and, when I went on to do other things, I did well."
After graduation, Jennings took an offer to work at a technology firm in Washington, then returned to school - he received a master's in education from Harvard in 2002 and a master's in social work from the University of Michigan in 2003. He now works for a nonprofit organization that focuses on adoptions.
In 1994, Suskind encountered Jennings while writing about dismal educational opportunities in America's inner cities. "I went to the worst high school I could find in Washington D.C.," Suskind said. "I was looking at what it takes to learn in a war-zone environment."
Suskind, then senior national affairs writer for the Wall Street Journal, published a series of features that focused on Jennings' high school years, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1995. Suskind tracked Jennings to Brown, and in 1998 he published "A Hope in the Unseen," an extended account of Jennings' journey to the University and his experiences through his sophomore year at college.
Jennings graduated a year after the book's release. "I had gotten offers to work at Goldman Sachs and to do some other things. I decided those particular jobs weren't for me," he said. He spoke at universities, churches and other venues about his experiences.
Soon, Jennings realized that technology was not for him even though he "was good at it," he said. In 2001 he enrolled at Harvard to pursue a master's in education. "After that, I decided to continue on because I didn't think the year was enough training." So he pursued a master's in social work at Michigan with a focus on children.
Since 2003, he has been working in Washington in child services. He began work in the Child and Families Service Agency and currently works in a nonprofit dealing with adoptions.
Jennings cites Brown as instrumental to his success. "People ask me, 'Out of all three schools, which was your favorite?' And hands down, I always say Brown," Jennings told The Herald.
While working on his articles and book, Suskind sought to understand Jennings' experience from the student's perspective. "We spent a lot of time together," he said. "I'd watch him at a distance so people didn't know that we were a team, and he'd report back to me."
Suskind interacted with a variety of students before deciding to focus on Jennings, he said. "Cedric was an exception. He was quite proud."
The rough environment of Jennings' high school encouraged gifted students to refrain from heralding their achievements. "A lot of the honors kids, as was typical of a very tough neighborhood, were called undercover honor students - they wouldn't raise their hands or carry backpacks," Suskind said.
Jennings said he frequently endured animosity from peers. "Among a small number of honor students, I think that I was one of the very few who was proud of my successes to the point where I wasn't ashamed to speak of it. I guess that kind of set me apart in (Suskind's) eyes."
Suskind said it was difficult to maintain the role of a bystander in Jennings' life. "I was very, very careful to make my influence as minimal as possible," he said. "We had rules, which I told Cedric about at the start. I could never tell him things that he didn't already know."
Suskind took care to confirm with then-Director of Admission Michael Goldberger that Jennings did not receive admission to Brown because of his attention in the Wall Street Journal. In fact, Jennings never mentioned his appearance in the Journal in his application to Brown.
"Now, of course, most kids would stick 10 copies of it in," Suskind said. "He got in as an affirmative action application. He comes from an underprivileged environment and he's African-American - he had a combined SAT score of 960."
Jennings learned of Brown at a math and science summer program for minority high school students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "The program brought several alums back and there was a young man who had talked about Brown," Jennings said. "It sounded so good to me. I liked its academic reputation, and the open curriculum policy. And it was far away from home."
Jennings wanted to attend Brown so badly that it was actually the only school to which he applied. "There were other schools that were offering me money, but Brown was the one for me," he said.
When he matriculated at Brown, other students did not know that he had been featured in a Wall Street Journal series, Jennings said.
It was important that students not single Jennings out, Suskind said. "I talked to (former President) Vartan Gregorian about this. No one could know that Cedric was the main subject of my interest. All people could know was that I would follow a group of kids and Cedric was one of them," Suskind said.
"Interestingly, none of the kids pulled the Wall Street Journal series - though, this was in the mid-'90s, and sort of pre-Internet," he said.
At Brown too, Suskind ensured that he did not interfere in Jennings' life. "Once we got to Brown, in doing what I do, it's important that I didn't violate Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle - that is, that the observations of a particle will change its path."
Brown factored into the success of Suskind's project. "Brown certainly gets an A for effort, not always necessarily in outcome, but its kind of progressive ardor. It definitely pushes itself to try to be innovative on issues both academic and cultural," Suskind said.
Suskind also lauded Brown's commitment to the project - regardless of how the University would finally be portrayed.
Since the book was published, Jennings said people interact with him differently. "For what it's worth, people really feel connected to me," he said. "It's nice when people that don't look like you or come from the same background can connect with you."
Initially, Jennings was slightly uncomfortable that people knew so much about him and felt close to him because they had read the book. "It's weird when people come to you and recite things about your life," he said.
Jennings noted that the culture of the University was at times hard to deal with. "Because by virtue of my religious upbringing and growing up in an environment where there was racial solidarity, it was definitely a culture shock at the beginning," he said. "One of the reasons why I wanted to come to Brown was to experience a change of cultures. Even though I'd set out to do that, it was very much a culture shock."
Jennings noted that his exposure to other racial groups at Brown contributed to his open-mindedness. "I no longer feel intimidated or uncomfortable if I'm the only black person in a room," he said. "I got that at Brown - when I got to Brown I got used to that."
At the University, Jennings concentrated in education studies and "did enough work in applied math that I could have had a minor if they had minors there."
Jennings said, "I love Brown, and it's funny, when I go back, I get goose bumps when I'm on campus," he said. "I get so excited and miss it."
