By Kate Snow, Deirdre Cohen, Sarah Koch, Nina Tyler
Rock Center
For Stephan Perez, attending the prestigious Columbia University was more than just a dream; it was a goal he set his sights on when he was only 13 years old and a goal he willed himself to achieve.
“I enrolled into all A.P. and honors classes. And that was my vision. I had only one goal. I woke up in the morning, it was Columbia. I went to sleep at night and it was Columbia,” said Perez in an interview set to air Thursday at 10pm/9c on NBC’s Rock Center with Brian Williams.
The Georgia-bred teenager worked tirelessly over the next few years and even stopped playing sports in order to focus all of his attention on his academics. His hard work finally paid off when he learned not only had he been accepted to his dream school, he received a Gates Millennium Scholarship that would pay for his tuition expenses.
But his inspirational rise to the top would end in a disastrous fall. It’s a cautionary tale for driven students and their parents.
Perez entered Columbia and before long began to feel overwhelmed by the pace and workload. But just as he started to adjust, Perez suffered a big emotional blow. His grandmother died. One night after his grandmother’s funeral he was in the library with a friend, studying for midterms and struggling to concentrate.
“I tell him, you know, ‘I can't concentrate. Like, I just can't do it.’ He said, ‘This is what you need’ and pulls out this pill,” Perez said.