- [Narrator] Caylin Moore defied the odds

as a kid growing up in Compton

who would become a prestigiousRhodes Scholar at Oxford.

But his journey to getthere was nothing short

of miraculous.

- You have to dreamdreams that are too big.

You have to dream dreams that are so big,

so unimaginable, sounfathomable, so unrealistic

that they are destined to failwithout divine intervention.

- [Narrator] In hisbook "A Dream Too Big,"

Caylin shares how his pursuitof hope and unflinching faith

in God helped him overcometremendous adversity

and how you can, too.

(uplifting music)

- Caylin joins us now.

It's nice to have youon the program today.

- Thank you, it's my pleasure to be here.

- Your mother said that your family

was sort of like the Huxtables and then

things just kind ofexploded and fell apart

and you found yourself in Compton.

What was that like for you?

- Yeah, it was just a stark contrast

between what I experiencedin a upper middle class area.

My parents were married for nine years

then after they divorced,you know, now you hear,

you know, gunshots at nighttime and you're getting used

to hearing, you know, ratsand roaches in the wall.

It was just, it was hardto deal with as a kid.

- Your mom was

an amazing lady.

I mean, she had the abilityto implant in your heart

and in your mind thatability that you could be

whatever you wanted tobe, not where you were.

That's a hard thing to teach a child.

- I think it is difficultbut it takes a lot

of role modeling.

So my mom, you know, despiteall of her struggles,

she went back to lawschool and she graduated

from law school, you know,during this time period.

So that set a certain typeof example and for me,

you know, I inheritedthat belief in myself

and that faith from my mom.

- You know, you outline inthe book how difficult it was

to hang on to that belief, Caylin.

You had everything, everythingworking against you, really.

I mean, your safety in thearea that you lived in,

the fear that you dealtwith because of that,

even teachers, coaches,people who should have been

inspiring you and callingyou to a higher place

were sort of saying,

"Who do you think you are?"

- Right.

- How'd you deal with that?

- I think, you know, Ihave to have that faith

that like as I said,the same type of faith

that I inherited from my mom.

She always told us thatwe may live in the hood

but the hood does not have to live in us.

So it kinda put me in amindset that, you know,

I need to see beyond these things,

I need to know that, youknow, hurt people hurt people.

So even if people wereputting me down or telling me

that I can't be something, Ineed to know that, you know,

they probably went through things

and they weren't able tobecome what they became

for whatever reason so Ineed to see beyond that.

- You had a kind of a gritty determination

that worked on your behalf that

you'd like to think everyyoung person that lives

in difficult experienceswould grab hold of.

But you, your work ethic is unbelievable.

I mean, as I'm readingyour book, I'm thinking,

"I don't know that I would have done that

"as he's doing it."

There were times that you got discouraged.

How did you pull yourself upby the bootstraps and say,

"No, we're gonna keep going forward?"

- Well where I come from,quitting is not an option.

You know, a lot of timesI think kids can get in

a difficult circumstanceand say, you know,

"I'm gonna quit andI'm gonna go back home,

"or go to mom's basement."

We didn't have a basementand there was nowhere to go.

I would be sleeping onthe floor in a garage

so I told myself that even ifI quit or if I wanna give up,

there's nowhere to go to, so Ineed to find something within

and find something aboveto hold onto in order

to push me forward.

- How did you make college your reality?

(Caylin laughs)

- A lot of hard work, a lot of mentorship,

a lot of, you know,opportunities that I was afforded

that unfortunately, in a very underfunded,

under-resourced area, a lot of other kids

didn't get those chances.

- You know,

it seemed like your antennawere up all the time going,

"Where's the opportunity?

"Where's the opportunity?

"A-ha,"

and then you dug in witheverything that you had,

even going into the NCAADivision I football arena,

you know, you had an opportunityto be successful there

for your parents to see you play.

I mean, that was,

that was miraculous, really.

- It really was.

Just as you said, I alwayshad to have my antennas up

about the next opportunity because I knew

they wouldn't come, youknow, come to my front door

very often.

I remember going to collegeand the first week of school,

you know, I put on a shirt and tie,

similar to this and I wentto every office on campus

and I said,

"Hello, my name is Caylin Moore,

"do you have any opportunitiesfor me to better myself?"

Because that, you know, I was coming from

such a low position thatI was like, you know,

someone could just teach me something,

you know, anywhere on this campus,

you know, I wanna benefit from that.

- You know, when I

read your book, I mean, Iwanna mention so that we get

all of this in becauseyou need to read the book.

It's an amazing book, but

you went then from

your career academically onto become a Rhodes Scholar.

I mean, that would've seemedimpossible to most people.

Most people.

People who hadn't comefrom where you'd come from.

What did you think whenthey announced your name?

- When they announced, you know,

"Caylin Moore, you area 2017 Rhodes Scholar

"from district--"

whichever district itwas, I just immediately,

I stood--

I remember I stood stillin place in my shoes

and I just looked at my shoes.

And I stood there for about 37 seconds.

And the reason why isthat if I stepped forward

to shake the woman'shand of congratulations,

that would be me acceptingthat anything was possible

and for 37 seconds, I wasn'tready to deal with that yet.

- Wow.

But it was possible.

What would you say to young people who

might be watching--

not even young people.

There are people at any phaseof life where life kind of

beat you down and says,

"No, you won't."

What advice would you give them to really

stand up, strap themselves up again,

and head for the future?

- Right, I would say,you know, as difficult

as the circumstances maybe, I encourage anyone

going through anything to holdon to that faith in things

unseen because I know for a fact

that there is a brighter tomorrow.

I have to believe this.

- And you're still pursuingyour brighter tomorrow.

What's next for you?

You're getting a Ph.D you hope in--

- Yeah, I'm applying toPh.D programs in the fall

so my hope is to become atenured professor somewhere

in studying sociologyso I can help, you know,

change some of theseissues that I talk about

in the book.

- Let's take back academia.

(laughter)

Please?

People, Caylin's book iscalled "A Dream Too Big."

it's the story of animprobably journey from Compton

to Oxford, it's awesome.

You've gotta pick it up and read it.

Not just for yourself,pass it on to somebody else

who needs it.

Thank you, great story.