Justin Prudent's future was so bright, he had to wear shades.
Justin, who was nonverbal until the age of three or four, wore a tan jacket, a striped tie and a Cheshire cat smile to go with his designer sunglasses as he graduated from fifth grade at the Halstead Academy in Hillendale on June 12. He won several awards, including for near-perfect attendance and for being a Halstead Future Hero, an honor given to students at the elementary school who show leadership traits. He was also inducted into the Halstead Hall of Fame.
But Justin, 11, is also basking in a different kind of limelight, one that will soon endear him to a national cable TV audience. He and two younger students at the arts and science magnet school of 595 students are featured in a new documentary, "Rise: The Promise of My Brother's Keeper," about a program at Halstead that is affiliated with My Brother's Keeper, an initiative President Obama started to increase academic and career opportunities for boys and young men of color.
Justin and Halstead Academy students Noah Ibrahim, a second-grader, and Keon Ransom, a first-grader, were like reality TV stars earlier this year. An award-winning documentary film crew followed Justin and Keon for four days in their homes and classrooms as part of a look at Halstead's recent success in improving the grades of its male black students, who now outperform their peers at comparable county schools on standardized math and reading tests, school officials say.
"It was exciting," said Justin, of Parkville. "I was just trying to be myself."
Noah was interviewed for the documentary, as were Baltimore County Public Schools Superintendent Dallas Dance and Jennifer Mullenax, principal of Halstead Academy, who was named the 2015 Principal of the Year for the county school system. The documentary also highlights Prep Academies, based in Chicago; the Yuba/Sutter program of YouthBuild, in rural northern California; and Youth Guidance's Becoming a Man program, also in Chicago.
According to the White House website, My Brother's Keeper is designed to "ensure that all young people can reach their full potential," by making sure students start school healthy and ready to learn, read at their grade level by age 8, and earn a high school and post-secondary education that will prepare them for the work force and quality jobs.
My Brother's Keeper is also focused on "keeping kids on track and giving them second chances," the White House states.
The Halstead students, their families and several school system officials, including Mullenax and Dance, will attend the red carpet premiere of "Rise" on Thursday, June 18, at the Newseum in Washington as part of the American Film Institute's documentary film festival. Dance will join a panel discussion after the screening. Also attending the premiere will be active Halstead volunteer Joe Blanding Jr., a Verizon program manager, co-owner of a day care center and parent of a second-grader at the school.
The White House could not be reached for comment as to whether Obama will attend the premiere.
The 60-minute documentary will air nationally June 21 on the Discovery Channel and OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network.
Sense of community
Also basking in national attention is the school itself, and Mullenax, who previously worked in the school system's central office and had never been a principal before. She said Halstead Academy, a 90 percent black neighborhood school despite its magnet status, lagged so far behind academically when she was appointed in 2010 that it was in danger of being restructured by the state.
"Halstead has not always had the most positive reputation in the school system," Mullenax said, adding that a big part of the problem was the school's culture, or lack thereof.
"There was no sense of community," she said.
Mullenax said she and her staff have worked hard to improve academic achievement at the school, the former Hillendale Elementary, and to change a negative public perception of Halstead.
"Halstead has become [a] true community center," Mullenax said. "Now, when you walk in the building, you most definitely feel the sense of community. Families trust us and we have outstanding teachers who will do whatever it takes to make sure that our kids succeed. We have made a significant turnaround in five years. The data shows that, and you can feel it."
Fourth-grade teacher Marcus Wimberly has also had a lot to do with students' success. He and Mullenax started the Halstead Future Heroes program, which requires students to apply for the honor and to dress up twice a month.
They also serve as school greeters and do service projects, like cleaning up a yard at the school.
Wimberly and the Future Heroes meets three times a month to talk about their responsibilities as young men and their ability to influence other students. Wimberly also brings in adult men as guest speakers. Recent speakers have included a Baltimore County police officer and another teacher's fiance, who is in the U.S. Air Force.
Wimberly said parents' perceptions of the school have changed from "wanting to stay away to wanting to get in."
Running to school
"Rise" is directed by Dawn Porter, who made the award-winning 2013 documentary "Gideon's Army," about three black public defenders working in the South. That film was honored at the Sundance and Tribeca film festivals. Porter and Assistant Producer Danielle Dabney could not be reached for comment.
Mullenax said the filming experience was "pretty awesome," with the documentary makers immersing themselves unobtrusively in the school. Mullenax said students were impressed to learn that the videographers had worked on the Oscar-nominated movie "Selma" and music videos for Jay-Z and Beyonce.
Mullenax said one of one of Justin's friends at school, Joseph Kubisehin, has since asked her to buy a hand-held camera, because he wants to film an upcoming school field trip to Philadelphia.
Keon, the first-grader who was featured in the film, has good memories of the experience, one in particular.
"I kept getting a lot of food," he said.
Justin remembers that when the camera crew came to his house, he was running late to school, so he literally ran from his house with the crew in close pursuit.
He also remembers cleaning his room for the crew the night before, only to have the crew mess it up a little.
"They wanted it to look lived in," he said.
Justin, who is headed to Loch Raven Academy in the fall as a sixth-grader, was proud to have a feature role in the documentary, but even more proud to graduate from fifth grade. Along with his coat, tie and shades, he wore a lei around his neck in honor of his family's Hawaiian heritage, and a box of candy attached to the lei, just because he likes the candy.
He also likes Halstead Academy.
"It's the best school ever," he said.