Like Khentov, Evans is unabashedly proud of his neighborhood, Sound View, a low-income community in the heart of the Bronx. Yet he is realistic about the tidal pull of crime that moves with a constant ebb and flow through the close-knit series of apartments surrounding his own.

"There were negative influences close enough for me to get drawn in," Evans says. "People get caught up in drugs, start hanging out in the wrong type of crowd."

Through Prep-For-Prep--a program which helps inner-city minorities prepare for preparatory high schools and college--Evans left Sound View to attend Phillips Andover Academy. Through will-power and a knack for resisting neighborhood temptations, Evans was able to embrace what he calls "positive living."

In the early '70s, his parents moved to Sound View to escape the more "densely populated" Harlem. Evans says he now feels a tremendous sense of loyalty to Sound View, what he calls his "home sweet home," to childhood friends and early basketball teammates. They were the kids on the block who played "manhunt" and "hot peas and butter" with him, some of whom later became his buddies, taking teenage trips to movies and clubs throughoutthe city.

For Evans, attending Harvard is both a personaland a collective achievement. He makes no bonesabout the fact that in South View his friends andneighbors had faith that Evans, of all people,would be the one to succeed.

"People knew I was smart," says Evansgratefully, "but they never thought of Harvard asa place where somebody from my neighborhood wouldgo."

Evans' urban pride is not unique. Will F.Austin '00, whose home is the working classneighborhood of Dorchester plans on raising hisown family in the same Boston neighborhood wherehis father played street hockey and pick-upbasketball in a nearby park. Outside his door, afew pubs, Dunkin' Donuts, a hardware store, apizza joint and the St. George's Catholic Churchwere the center of Austin's urban landscape.

Although Dorchester and memories of playingball to the drone of the Mattapan trolley are onlya T-ride away from Harvard, according to Austinthe two locales are worlds apart. At Hahvahd, ashe properly pronounces it, people automaticallylabel him as a Boston city boy.

In contrast to his city streets, the greengrass of Austin's Dunster House seems like asummer home. Austin says he nearly choked when,during his first year at Harvard, a proctor warnedhis new entryway to be careful of CambridgeCommons at night.

"Heaven forbid someone should ask you forchange," Austin says. From his perspective,Cambridge is one of the safest places in the cityand he is still surprised that people here are so"uptight" about security.

Keep Your Head Up

Although her native Hyde Park was only a fewblocks from the most dangerous projects inChicago, Danielle E. Sherrod '98-'99 claims thatshe felt a "false sense of security" due to streetsmarts she still finds useful in her newsemi-urban home.

For those to whom Harvard is the big city, sheoffers key words of advice: "Just be polite to thepanhandlers...they will understand if you cannotgive."

Feeling comfortably safe to move aroundCambridge with ease takes time, but inner-citystudents can skip the learning curve. When askedabout his home, a working-class neighborhood whereIrish Catholic families live alongside Vietnamese,African American, Haitian and Cape Verdean ones,Austin's reply resounds with the sarcasm ofstreet-savvy, "Have you ever seen the eveningnews?"

Crime, racially motivated violence andconfrontations are common aspects of what Austincalls "the darker side of Dorchester," only fiveminutes from the heart of Mattapan/Ashmont, one ofthe most traveled sections of Boston. The projectscan be seen from Austin's window.

Austin's amazement at the sheltered life manyundergrads lead before arriving in the Square isnot unusual. In fact, other inner-city nativesdescribe similar reactions. Khentov admits thatunconsciously upon arriving at "peaceful andquiet" Harvard, he automatically had a common bondwith other inner-city natives like Austin, who hassince become a close friend.