A Bronx teen made the stunning journey from a homeless shelter to a full ride at MIT — and is crediting Success Academy for lighting his path.
Moctar Fall, of The Bronx, is one of 16 members of the charter school network’s first graduating high-school class — all of whom nabbed spots at four-year colleges ranging from Barnard and Tufts to Stony Brook and Emory.
“There were hardships in my life,” Fall, 17, told The Post. “There was stress that got in the way of getting my work done and staying positive. But that’s when the discipline helps to push you through.”
Fall’s mother, Ndimou Ndiaye, began to weep Thursday when she spotted Success Academy founder Eva Moskowitz in a hallway and embraced her.
“This school saved my family,” she told The Post. “This school is saving lots of families.”
After emigrating from Senegal, Fall and his family struggled to gain their footing and were forced to sometimes take refuge in homeless shelters.
For the Bronx boy, school became a bastion of stability in an otherwise uncertain world.
Fall and his classmates made a nostalgic visit to their old Harlem elementary school Thursday before their official graduation ceremony at Lincoln Center.
They were welcomed like conquering heroes at Success Academy Harlem 1 by awestruck kids who marveled at their caps, gowns and tales of collegiate promise.
Minutes earlier, the tight-knit group gathered privately to receive their graduation regalia and playfully adjusted each other’s tassels, centered bangs and smoothed gowns.
Her outfit perfected, Aida Bathily, the first person in her family to go to college, told The Post of the tense moment she opened up her acceptance letter from Wake Forest University.
“I came home one day and my mom and dad and two siblings were sitting at the table,” she said. “There was a letter from the school sitting there in the middle of them unopened. When I opened it, we started yelling and screaming. It was a family moment. I won’t forget it.”
Thursday’s reunion and graduation proved especially moving for Moskowitz.
“It’s very emotional,” she said. “Obviously, I’m super proud of the kids. I taught many of them to read when they were in first grade, I was their principal for the first three years of the school and it hasn’t been easy educationally and we know it hasn’t been easy politically.”
While consistently producing some of the top academic metrics in the city and serving as an alternative to poorly performing public schools, Success Academy has also aroused strong opposition.
Critics argue that the network uses unforgiving disciplinary tactics to cull less promising kids and siphons resources from traditional public schools.
The inaugural Success Academy Harlem 1 class began with 73 students in 2006 before contracting to the final 16 after attrition.
The graduates said Thursday that a lot of former classmates and their parents bristled at Success Academy’s demanding culture and left.
But those who remained were thrilled they stayed.
“These are the results, right here. We’re just kids trying to go to college and we took an opportunity that was given to us,” said Ismael Sy Savane, who will attend SUNY Cortland next year.
Michel Sidemion, 17, will study computer science at Tufts.
The tech-minded graduate said he and his classmates depended on each other through more than a decade of challenge and temptation.
“We feed off of each other’s aspirations,” Sidemion said, adding that the controversies around the school were perplexing. “The true experience is in the classroom. People don’t know what we think in the classroom. Only we do.”
His father, Eden Sidemion, an immigrant from the African nation of Togo, rejected any suggestion that his son had been subjected to excessive discipline.
“These are struggles?” he asked. “These are not struggles. When you compare Success Academy to other schools, you see the structure. You don’t run from that. You use it to be successful.”