For 19-year-old Timothy Brown, hard times started almost at birth. His mother abandoned him when he was only six months old. As a teenager, he joined a gang and eventually was sent to prison for robbery.
In his Brooklyn, N.Y., neighborhood, life itself can be uncertain.
"In the 'hood, one of your closest friends -- somebody you grew up with -- you chill with them today, and then next week will come, you heard something happened to them," Brown said. "They got shot or they got locked up. Most of the time it's for something stupid."
Trying to change that -- and help teens like Brown overcome the obstacles that come with life in poor, tough neighborhoods -- is Brooklyn's Automotive High School. It's a place where teachers greet students at the door every morning.
"We know the day goes as the morning goes," said Assistant Principal of Safety Kimberly Laboy. "You look for the students -- this one isn't having a good morning, that one's not having a good morning -- and we will pull them relatively early and have them talk to someone. Check in with them."
Once they make it through the schoolhouse doors, students walk side-by-side with police officers who patrol the hallways. Fights break out almost every day. Students say there is gang activity. But still -- once the bell rings and the school's nearly 1,000 students are corralled into classrooms -- it is a refuge.
"When I walk into the classroom and build a rapport with the students, and they put their trust in me, I want to make sure I'm doing what I can to make sure that trust continues and that it is a safe place," said English teacher Erika Bogdany. "Some of our students don't have other safe places."
While every student who graduates from Automotive High School gets a diploma, they also have the option of learning something more practical than English, math and social studies: how to fix cars. It is a trade that is still in demand, despite the recession.
"I've learned how to rotate tires, how to fix a radiator, change the oil, stuff like that," said Christopher Wilson, who said he chose Automotive High School specifically to learn about cars.
"We are preparing our students to tackle every element of the industry," said Principal Mary Brouder. "From the creation to the idea, to what happens to the product after we are finished with it, and absolutely everything in between."
In a sea of testosterone, there are some glimpses of girl power. Senior Naomi Saez is one of only 30 female students.
"I just love it," Saez said. "We have real cars come in -- real, actual customers. It's my thing."
But still, with more than 68 percent of the student body living in poverty, teachers at the school know their challenge is far bigger than just teaching students what is under the hood.
"You go into education for a reason," Laboy said. "It really is a calling. When you come into a building like this, you really want to fulfill a mission. For our students, we are the last thing that stands between them and earning a living wage. We're their best chance."
Every staff member at this school -- from teachers to secretaries, and even the principal -- becomes what they call "graduation guardians." They work one-on-one with students to help them get past any obstacles, no matter how big, to reaching graduation. And 67 percent of the students here do graduate, a rate higher than the average for New York City.
"Sometimes I will get a call on my cell phone saying something went down somewhere else and we need to be prepared to deal with it tomorrow," Laboy said. "And that has got to be part of our strategy when you are dealing with a lot of students who have a lot of needs. Things that happen at home need to be addressed in schools because students are human beings. They bring all of that with them."
That's exactly what happened when Brown was dealt perhaps the biggest blow of all -- the death of his stepmother three years ago. She was the woman who raised him, and the only mother he had ever known. It was a loss that almost crushed him, but his teachers refused to let him experience his tragedy alone. He is now on track to graduate this spring.
"I just wanted to die," said Brown. "But I had a lot of people in the school who gave me support. I had a lot of people that were there for me, so they pulled me through it. I made it, no matter what I went through. I made it out of the 'hood."