Many of my peers are heading to law school. It's a natural choice for those who want to be leaders. I was student body president at my college, trained to be a leader. I saw the challenge and opportunity of law school as a logical next step. I've spent a year and half working toward law school. I took the LSAT twice, wrote multiple versions of my application essays, applied to eight law schools, and got into some good ones.

I'm not going, at least this coming year. Instead, I've decided to work at a residential program for at-risk teenagers.

BRIGHTON BEACH, N.Y.- Leslie McMillan hears voices wherever she works. They used to be the voices of politicians in Olympia, capital of the state of Washington. Now they're voices with thick Russian accents in this Brooklyn neighborhood (adjacent to Coney Island) where store awnings and windows display names and prices in Cyrillic lettering.

NEW YORK CITY- On a warm spring day more people meander through New York City's Bryant Park than any other park in the world, on a per acre basis. The change since 1988, when few not looking for drugs or heading for a mugging set foot in what was called "Needle Park," is extraordinary. New Yorkers may be accustomed to it, but lessons in transformation can be learned for other urban parks. How did it happen?