A poet once said that a rose grows between the cracks of concrete because the rose chooses to grow. It chooses to prove nature’s laws wrong and grows without the example of others. This poet is Tupac Shakur. Although some people don’t see a poet in a person who is commonly associated with violence and crime, Franklin High School graduate and Stanford University student Michael Tubbs thinks differently. “A lot of times hip-hop is demonized and sometimes rightfully so,” he said. “But there are ways you shift what people are listening to, to make it positive.”

Alex Olacio, freshman, was inspired by this metaphor on Tuesday, Aug. 31 when Tubbs presented to the student body in the gym. Olacio sees himself as that rose rising from the concrete when he thinks about everything that he has had to deal with. He has lived with only one parent since he was 4 years old, he has never really gotten adjusted to living in one place, and his dad has been in jail for a few months now. When his dad was around, Olacio questioned how his dad was able to provide for him and his family. “He found ways to get us clothes and food and stuff,” he said. “I don’t know how, though.” Olacio still finds hope in becoming a football player, despite his rough upbringing.

Tubbs has seen proof of shifting ideals after presenting to church audiences, high school, and Stanford University students. He has looked through social websites such as Myspace and Facebook and on people’s headlines and walls he sees the acronym “SWAG” a phrase that he has borrowed from hip-hop artist Soulja Boy which means “Show the world all your greatness.”   

Junior Trenese Manning finds more inspiration through finding connections to many of Tubbs’s own struggles throughout his life, especially with struggles such as their families relying on government funded aid for food. “Eating peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches for dinner sometimes will be the only thing,” Manning said. “What he went through is pretty much what we’re going through now.” Even though Manning does find it challenging to sometimes get to school in the mornings due to lack of transportation, she still does all she can to reach a goal similar to Tubbs. Manning wants to be the first person in her family to go to college.  

However, students getting to college can sometimes be more difficult in a community such as Stockton, Tubbs says. It isn’t lack of motivation, he said, but the “haters” who will arise especially when one strives to achieve. “If you’re trying to be different, people aren’t going to like you” he said. Tubbs, on the other hand, finds motivation from the “haters.” He references hip-hop artist Jay-Z and his song “So Ambitious,” and says that just like the song he finds motivation from the people who tell him he can’t do something. 

Tubbs hopes to not only spread this message to those he speaks to but also through various programs and non-profit organizations. His website, www.mdtubbs.com, has become a way of spreading his message as well.  

This last summer he started a college application consultant program for students coming from low-income households and troubled communities called the Stanford Phoenix Program. Through projects such as this, Tubbs wants to ensure that his personal goal can be realized now. Growing up he always told himself that “when (he would) make it, (he would) make sure everybody else knows they can make it.”