Syracuse, N.Y. -- Shelice Highsmith made a promise to herself when she gave birth to Zaire Franklin in July 1996.
Highsmith had been the first in her family in two generations to attend college, but was dropping out to raise Franklin as a single parent in North Philadelphia. Her son, as she would remind him and the rest of her family throughout his childhood, would be the first to graduate.
"You're going to go to college and finish college, unlike me," Highsmith's sister, Marla Burke, remembers Highsmith saying. "You're going to be something in life, even if I have to die trying.