The thousands of children in Harlem Children's Zone are learning more than reading, writing and arithmetic. Geoffrey has created programs to expose his students to everything from chess to martial arts and the violin. He even partnered with Lehman Brothers to teach kids how to invest in the stock market. In one year, the students made $14,000, which they split amongst themselves.

"[Some] kids grow up thinking the whole world revolves around playing basketball or jumping rope," he says. "Our job is to say, 'There are lots of opportunities out there you don't know about.'"

What's the promise Geoffrey has made to every child he works with? "We tell our children, and we tell our parents, 'You stay with us. You work with us. You don't give up on us. We won't give up on you,'" he says. "I will promise that your child will not only go to college, but we will get that child through college."

Geoffrey says he's determined to turn things around for America's youth before they get worse.

"I'm getting to the age where I say, 'If I can't bring a change now, I'm going to leave here and leave the world worse than when I came in it,'" he says. "My parents were part of the civil rights movement. They struggled. They tried to give us a chance, and we can't drop the ball right now."