The story of how Humans of New York photographer/documentarian Brandon Stanton has helped highlight a Brownsville student, his principal and their school is now on the national stage. Ellen DeGeneres welcomed Stanton, 13-year-old Vidal Chastanet and Mott Hall Bridges Academy's Nadia Lopez to her show to talk about how their passion led to the $1 million+ fundraiser.
Vidal had told Stanton that Principal Lopez was the most influential person in his life, because she tells him and other students "that each time somebody fails out of school, a new jail cell gets built. And one time she made every student stand up, one at a time, and she told each one of us that we matter." Stanton and Lopez later decided to harness the outpouring of support from HONY's 12 million followers by starting a fundraiser so incoming sixth graders can visit Harvard. And their dream of $100,000 to fund three years of the field trip has yielded over $1.1 million, which means years of field trips, plus summer programs and scholarships.
Lopez discussed how Stanton's photograph and Vidal's appreciation for her work came at a critical time:
Uh, did it get dusty in here? DeGeneres also announced that Target has donated "state-of-the-art" electronics to outfit every classroom at Mott Hall Bridges as well as other schools in the community.
