And Still We Rise: The Trials and Triumphs of Twelve Gifted Inner-City High School Students

Though many AP students spend spring break preparing for the exam, the students at Crenshaw spend the time working. Olivia is at the Dorothy Kirby Center and is not sure that she will be allowed to attend college. She works the system to call financial aid offices from the center and ask her teachers if she can still take her AP exams. She feels forsaken that Little and Braxton and her friend Julia, who doesn’t have a car, haven’t visited her. Corwin is allowed to visit her.

Olivia seems depressed, and the classes she is taking are far too easy for her. The center has security measures, and Olivia is only allowed five minutes for a shower. She submitted her Babson application, and is trying to stay positive.

Corwin speaks to Olivia’s psychiatric social worker, Susanne Dunne, an English woman who is impressed by Olivia’s intellect. Olivia is different than most of the girls at the center and is teased for being a “‘[b]rain’” (313). Olivia gets along well with the teachers, who turn her into a kind of teaching assistant for the other students. Dunne feels that Olivia should have a year of therapy before leaving the center, but Olivia wants to leave after six months to go to college.