Some of the students come from communities where they had few or no white classmates.

Lopez was targeted by white classmates and beaten up on occasion.

All six of my white classmates had heard it.

Like many of their white classmates, they searched for the bigger opportunities a city would offer.

But after developing friendships with white classmates and teachers, she came to believe otherwise.

Some students said they had trouble keeping up with white classmates.

I spent the first 13 years of my life without a white classmate.

They earn advanced degrees at rates identical to those of their white classmates.

And they become more active than their white classmates in civic activities.

They were also more active in community service and more likely to be leaders of civic groups than white classmates 20 years later.