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Bryan Dameron is student body president at Holcombe Rucker High School and has been accepted to every college he's applied to. He's flourished at the small South Bronx school where only 57 percent of students graduate on time. But he wasn't always so poised for success. Not long ago he had fallen off track and into drugs while in high school in Michigan.

"I know people don't like to be the new kid, but in certain situations, being the new kid can be a good thing. You can really show people the real you," Dameron said.

In January 2010, his worried grandparents contacted 27-year-old Shawn Blanchard, a math teacher at Holcombe Rucker. Years before, when Blanchard was a college student in Michigan, he had been Bryan's tutor and mentor. The grandparents asked for the ultimate favor: would he temporarily adopt Bryan and let him finish high school in New York?

"I thought about it. One night. And I told them the next day that I would do it," Blanchard said.

"I asked him, I said, 'Are you sure about this?' I said, 'You know this is a lot of work. Your personal life is going to change.' I said, 'You are becoming a parent. You are becoming a parent of a teenager,'" said Holcombe Rucker High School Sharif Rucker.

It was a struggle Blanchard knows all too well. Growing up in Detroit, he had seven brothers: three are now in prison, three others are dead. While his brothers got caught up in the street, Blanchard went to college. It's a big part of why he takes his role as teacher and mentor very seriously. It's also one of many things he's taught Bryan, who now tries to be a good influence on his friends.

"I try to be what Shawn was to me to them in a way, in a more casual way. I try to sneak it in there," Dameron said.

The two refer to each other as "bro" and often tell people they're brothers. Bryan copies the way Blanchard dresses -- even putting on a tie everyday -- before taking a bus to school, where his classmates have it a lot harder than him.

"Going to this school helped me realize how blessed and privileged I was," Dameron said.

Blanchard may have lost six of his brothers but the adopted one says, even after moving to Atlanta for college, he won't go a day without checking in with his bro.