Building young men
8 Million Stories alternative school gets students back on track
Avery Jones was on the verge of dropping out of Sharpstown High School. There were just too many distractions. He had too many friends there — friends he’d known since middle school or from playing sports, but friends that were becoming a bad influence.
“It was me constantly talking to them, leaving campus and getting into trouble,” Jones says. “Gradewise and workwise, I was doing good. But I was hanging around kids who weren’t on the right track. I was trying to follow them and be a cool kid.”
Jones’ mom knew her son needed a new learning
environment or he’d never graduate. She was looking for alternative options online when Marvin Pierre’s name appeared in her Facebook feed.
In 2017, Pierre founded 8 Million Stories to help disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline. His alternative education program primarily serves male youths, ages 16-19, who’ve disconnected from traditional school, dropped out or don’t have enough credits to earn their diploma.
Jones met the criteria.
“When a parent is seeking another option for their kids because they’re not succeeding in traditional school, we’re such a relief,” Pierre says. “Whether this kid just got kicked out for fighting or that kid just got out of jail, we aren’t fazed. These aren’t bad kids — their actions are essentially a cry for help.”
The name of his school derives from the title of a song by A Tribe Called Quest. Lyrics at the end of the song play, ‘Help me out, y’all, help me out now.’ Which is exactly what Pierre aspires to do.
A native New Yorker, he attended Prep Tabor Academy, a former all-boys school in Massachusetts, which has since become a co-educational institution.
“Any environment where you’re the only minority student is a hard adjustment, socially,” he recalls. “So the staff connected me with Dr. (Sam) McFadden, one of the few African Americans in the town.”
McFadden, the head radiologist at a local hospital, became his mentor and something of a surrogate father figure. Their relationship had a profound effect on Pierre’s trajectory. “He told me, ‘Marvin, I know you’re going to be really successful in life. But no matter how much you accomplish, don’t forget to reach back and pull up another person.”
That sage advice came into play in 2008 when Pierre — who worked for Goldman Sachs on Wall Street at the time — was laid off during the recession.
A friend who is a teacher asked him to speak with the young boys in her classroom. Much like Pierre’s childhood, her students didn’t have many male figures in their lives to look up to.
“She thought I could motivate them to do well because we came from a similar background,” he said. “I was walking around her classroom and stumbled across a board that suggested a fifth-grade reading level, but the highest student I saw ranked was a three.”
He was reminded of McFadden in that moment. “He passed away on my first day at Goldman. He saw potential in me when I didn’t see potential in myself. And I thought, ‘What better way to keep his legacy alive?’ ”
Pierre, 37, moved to Houston with the goal of opening an allboys school six years ago. He says that the region refers 12,000 young people to the juvenile justice system annually. And many of those kids struggle to reintegrate into their communities post-incarceration.
To learn how the area system works, Pierre accepted an assistant principal position with KIPP Polaris Academy for Boys.
“It really allowed me to have an impact here locally,” he says.
By 2017, he was ready to strike out on his own. 8 Million Stories operates inside Good Hope Missionary Baptist Church on Houston’s southwest side. Pierre wanted a location in the heart of a community where youths were the most disconnected from positive role models, and therefore likely to be affected by the school-to-prison pipeline.
His program follows the Houston ISD calendar and operates 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. For admittance, he looks for young people who are resilient, display a commitment to the process and are up for a challenge.
He often accepts referrals from government agencies, though his preference is for kids who selfelect. “We don’t want them to feel like they’re forced to participate. They fill out an application, which gives us an opportunity to assess fit on both ends.
“I want a student who is responsible, shows up every day and gives 100 percent,” Pierre says. “It’s not a quick turnaround. They’ve got to do the personal development.”
Jones can attest.
“One thing about 8 Million Stories is they don’t play. If you just want to go there, sit around and talk, it’s not going to work,” he says. “But they motivate you. Say you’re having trouble with an assignment, the teachers will pull you to the side and tell you why it’s important. They make you feel like you’ve got this.”
That’s the advantage of the program’s 1:12 teacher-to-student ratio, Pierre says. It helps educators address each student’s academic challenges. “In a traditional school setting, they’re one of 2,000. And what many of our kids need so much is a place to call home.”
In the past, he’s admitted roughly 150 students per school year. Because of COVID-19, 8 Million Stories reduced enrollment to 40 for the fall semester and will play spring by ear.
Jones, now 19, is one of the students who will return as a fellow. He spent the end of summer helping Pierre and fellow alumni set up and paint the classroom space at Good Hope.
“Since we’ve already taken the (GED) test, I know how stressful and hard it can be. I can help explain it in a way that the students can understand,” he says. “We’ll also be talking to investors, telling them what 8 Million Stories has done for us.”
At the moment, sustainable funding is Pierre’s biggest hurdle.
“There’s so much more we can offer our students, but being a young organization, we just don’t have the capital,” he says. “How do we create a financial cushion when we’re still in the startup phase? We receive grants from foundations and are trying to create innovative ways to subsidize our costs.”
That’s where Jones and other 8 Million Stories graduates come in. They’re a walking testament of job readiness, leadership skills and ability to work in a team environment that the program affords young Houston men — given the right support.
“They see something in you,” Jones says. “Before this lockdown, I was really looking at getting into construction and applying to building school.”
His voice changes as he recalls a recent conversation with his top choice: a training facility in Tulsa, Okla. The once-distracted teenager has grown into a confident young man — and he’s never been more focused.