Allan Guei stood at the half-court line with a chance to win $40,000.  A pretty unlikely scenario for a kid from a place as tough as Compton High School.  But some time earlier a Los Angeles ad executive named Court Crandall had an idea to motivate inner-city kids like Allan.  He got some corporate sponsors to kick in the $40K, and then challenged all the kids in the school to try to win it.  Here was the deal: any kid who could achieve a 3.0 GPA would be eligible to take a half-court shot to win the money.

Over 100 kids achieved over 3.0 GPA to become eligible.  From that list, 8 were chosen randomly to take a shot. 7 tried and missed.  And then Allan Guei stepped up.  And drained it.

It wasn't entirely surprising.  Allan is a pretty good basketball player and the star of the Compton team.  He's so good, in fact, that he was being looked at by a bunch of college recruiters.  Shortly after winning the $40,000, Allan got another huge prize: a call from Cal State - Northridge letting him know he had won a full-ride basketball scholarship.  His cup runneth over.

Amazingly, this didn't make him happy.  In fact, it bothered him.  He thought about his good fortune, and then considered the other 7 kids, who didn't have his basketball skills.  He thought it was a little unfair.   

Shortly thereafter, all of the runners-up received a check for $5000.  

Allan said, "I've already been blessed so much, and I know we're living with a bad economy, so I know this money can really help my classmates."  

You can read previous installments of the quick Sliver in our online archive. Just go here: http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs015/1103023679528/archive/1103033975377.html