It is 1993, and Cedric Jennings is a bright and ferociously determined honor student at Ballou, a high school in one of Washington D.C.'s most dangerous neighborhoods, where the dropout rate is well into double digits and just 80 students out of more than 1,350 boast an average of B or better. At Ballou, Cedric has almost no friends. He eats lunch in a classroom most days, plowing through the extra work he has asked for, knowing that he's really competing with kids from other, harder schools. Cedric Jennings's driving ambition-which is fully supported by his forceful mother-is to attend a top-flight college. In September 1995, after years of near superhuman dedication, he realizes that ambition when he begins as a freshman at Brown University. In this updated edition, A Hope in the Unseen chronicles Cedric's odyssey during his last two years of high school, follows him through his difficult first year at Brown, and now tells the story of his subsequent successes in college and the world of work. Review "A beautiful book of a heroic American struggle." \--David Halberstam in USA Today "[An] extraordinary, formula-shattering book." \--New York Times Book Review "A story of sheer human grit that should be read by others as example and inspiration." \--Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post Book World "Absolutely gripping. A sort of suspense novel of the human psyche. . . . It's beyond good, it's really extraordinary." \--Walter Kirn, National Public Radio " A beautiful book of a heroic American struggle." \--David Halberstam in USA Today " [An] extraordinary, formula-shattering book." \--New York Times Book Review " A story of sheer human grit that should be read by others as example and inspiration." \--Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post Book World " Absolutely gripping. A sort of suspense novel of the human psyche. . . . It's beyond good, it's really extraordinary." \--Walter Kirn, National Public Radio From the Back Cover At Ballou Senior High, a crime-infested school in Washington, D.C., honor students have learned to keep their heads down. Like most inner-city kids, they know that any special attention in a place this dangerous can make you a target of violence. But Cedric Jennings will not swallow his pride, and with unwavering support from his mother, he studies and strives as if his life depends on it--and it does. The summer after his junior year, at a program for minorities at MIT, he gets a fleeting glimpse of life outside, a glimpse that turns into a face-on challenge one year later: acceptance into Brown University, an Ivy League school. At Brown, finding himself far behind most of the other freshmen, Cedric must manage a bewildering array of intellectual and social challenges. Cedric had hoped that at college he would finally find a place to fit in, but he discovers he has little in common with either the white students, many of whom come from privileged backgrounds, or the middle-class blacks. Having traveled too far to turn back, Cedric is left to rely on his faith, his intelligence, and his determination to keep alive his hope in the unseen--a future of acceptance and reward that he struggles, each day, to envision.