 Chicago is one of the largest cities in America. It's also home to the Army's top recruiter. I mean, there's a huge difference between the National Guard and the Reserves. I mean, the benefits are all the same. Sergeant First Class Ernie Nieves came to the U.S. with his family when he was five. Go, go, go! Give it all you got! He joined the Army when he was 32. After serving in the Army Reserve, he knew that recruiting was where his heart was. I could see you can start working on it. We have a wonderful platform and a wonderful opportunity because we are the face of the Army. We're out there engaging with the community, talking to the community. And what greater way to actually give back than there. That's why he wanted to come back to Shytown to recruit. It's my knowledge of, you know, the violence that exists out there, I guess made me a lot more comfortable, if you will, to go out there and actually get my hands dirty, reach out, pull out as many as I can. You can put a hundred people in the Army and never impact one life. And that's my goal, is to make every recruiter aware that you have that responsibility. That is part of your job, is to make a difference. That passion is fueled by his past. By the time I was nine, my parents got divorced. I was extremely, extremely close to my dad being the firstborn. When he left, I had a lot of anger. I had a lot of questions like, why would this happen? Growing up, I started to, you know, you start to look for that mentor. You start to look for that father somewhere. And like so many other young men, he found that mentor in a local gang. The way we were set up was very, very family oriented. So everybody looked out for each other. Well, it's transitioned from a sense of family and belonging to thrill. And now, for the most part, it is about the money. But the glamour and that feeling of family he got from the gang couldn't compete with a reoccurring nightmare. I started to have a dream that I'm driving and there's another car coming this way. And the driver takes out a gun and starts shooting me. And the bullets are going through me and I'm trying to figure out why it's not hurting me. Then I look in the back seat and my son's in the car seat. And my son was in the car seat, he was bleeding. I remember screaming in my dream saying, why, why him, why not me? He left the gang and has focused on helping others do the same through mentoring programs in community centers and schools. You know, it's the mentality that needs to change. It's not necessarily the environment. So, sounds good. If every recruiter would realize that, okay, you don't qualify, but I can leave you with something that maybe can change your life from there and have that sense of responsibility and that obligation to serve in that capacity, it would change how the world sees us. It says, for his commitment to our students, their lives and futures through the freshman mentoring program, thank you for all your support in the family community. Thank you. When you see them listen and follow through with it, I'm very, very proud of the potential that these kids have here in Chicago. That's why I can't wrap my mind around like, why wouldn't you do this? Having the opportunity, why wouldn't you give back?