July 9, 2009 Neighborhood Scholar: Angelica McNeil of Bird Street Community Center Play video

(NECN: Ally Donnelly) - NECN has joined forces with John Hancock Financial for a new program called Neighborhood Scholars. It recognizes young people who have shown extraordinary service to a New England non-profit and their community.

Angelica McNeil is the first Neighborhood Scholar.

Ally Donnelly introduces us to the young woman who fights to survive in a neighborhood where the struggle of the streets often wins.

Angelica McNeil has grown up on the battle-scarred streets of Dorchester. The 16-year-old seeing too much wasted possibility in her inner city Boston neighborhood.

Angelica: You just see a lot of people hangin' on the corners a lot. People who don't have jobs and they just don't want to better their self.

But she does. And a few years ago Angelica made a decision that would help shape her life.

She joined the Bird Street Community Center. A non-profit -- founded more than three decades ago -- that aims to broaden the horizons of city kids through arts, education and job programs.

Andrea Kaiser, Bird Street: Giving young people the emotional, social, intellectual and personal strength to move forward in life.

Andrea Kaiser runs Bird Street. She says education is the key out of poverty, but economic independence is critical too. Kaiser finds jobs for more than 200 kids a year.

Kaiser: It certainly is a different track than getting the money from selling drugs or being a mule or committing crime.

As

sirens wail on the street below. Angelica thumbs through an SAT prep book. The teen spends most of her time in the rambling old building in Uphams Corner. She's now a volunteer mentor to younger kids -- some whose parents juggle two or three jobs -- some -- whose parents don't come home for days.

Angelica: You've got the good kids, you've got the bad kids but, I mean, at the end of the day, they're all good.

Angelica's mother is her role model. Diane Bell -- a single mom who struggled to put food on the table --- rules the roost with a strong hand.

Diane Bell: “I didn't ever her want to ever think she could rule an adult. To me school is serious. And in order for her to get a good education she's going to have to learn to shut her mouth and pay attention.”

Angelica: She's not my friend. She's my mother. I know the authority that she has. I'm afraid of her laughing.

And that's what has driven Angelica to succeed. She is one of twenty Boston teens -- chosen from among hundreds -- for a six-week program called Connections to College -- a collaboration between Bird Street and Suffolk University. The kids live on campus while earning credit for college level classes. Kaiser says they don't look for "A" students, they seek out students who struggle, teens like Angelica

Angelica had everything going for her. A beautiful, bright girl -- with so many opportunities on the horizon, but then, one bitter night in January, everything changed.

Just blocks from her house, her older brother was gunned down in the street. Angelica says he was a good brother, but dropped out of school and had never had a real job.

He was just 35.

Angelica: “It was a waste. He could have went to school. He could have got a job. He could have been there for his kids, but...I mean...it was too late.”

But was it too late for Angelica? To be in the connections to college program the teens need a job. Angelica had secured one -- as an intern at the statehouse -- but she was supposed to spend the winter finding funding for it. She didn't, she was too busy grieving. Without the money, she was out.

Angelica: “I didn't have nowhere else to go, I didn't have a job, I wouldn't be able to get a opportunity of a lifetime.”

But her friends at Bird Street were not going to let that happen. They scoured every corner for grants. Angelica is the face of so many kids at the center. Kids who could fall through the cracks. Kids who get stabbed, hooked on heroin, gunned down in a drive by.

Kaiser: “We know that most of these young people really can make it. And the ones we lose, it's terrible, but we can't let all of them be lost.”

The folks at Bird Street found the money. They nominated Angelica for the new John Hancock/NECN neighborhood scholars program. It recognizes teens that make a difference in their community through service. Because of her commitment to mentoring, Angelica has funding for her job and heads to college for the summer.

Angelica: “It gives you the power to make you feel like you're doing something positive.”

Something positive to do her mother, and the kids who follow in her foot steps at Bird Street proud.

For more information visit JHNeighborhoodScholars.com