We just finished shooting a segment with Robin Roberts for...

We just finished shooting a segment with Robin Roberts for tomorrow’s Good
Morning America. Robin is one of those rare few whose warmth doesn’t
fade when the camera shuts off. She started crying when she left,
because she said she was thinking about how much her mother would love
the story of Ms. Lopez and Mott Hall Bridges Academy.

“My mother wasn’t supposed to go to college,” she explained.
“My grandmother dropped out of school in 5th grade, and my grandfather
dropped out in 6th grade. So they just didn’t know how to raise a
daughter to go to college. But my mother had an elementary school
teacher named Ms. Wilma Schnegg. And Ms. Schnegg is a legend in our
family, because she made sure my mother knew that she was expected to go
to college. She sat down and helped my mother apply for a $100
scholarship, and my mother used that scholarship to go to Howard
University. And that one act rippled down through several generations.
Because of that, my mother met my father. And they raised four
children who went to college. And because of Ms. Schnegg, I’m where I
am today. So I look at the story of Ms. Lopez and this school, and I
think of Ms. Schnegg, and I think of how much my mother would have loved
this story.”