Geoffrey Canada is president and CEO of the Harlem Children's Zone in Central Harlem, New York. Canada grew up poor in the South Bronx in a neighborhood not unlike Harlem. He was surrounded by violence and drugs but used education as his ticket out of the Bronx. Canada earned his bachelor's degree at Bowdoin College and went on to receive his Masters degree from the Harvard School of Education. He began his education career as an English and social studies teacher at a public school in Boston, Massachusetts in 1975. He said he planned to "straighten out education in the nation" within a year or two, only to find out that he was a terrible teacher for his first three years. As he grew more competent as a teacher, he also grew more frustrated by the bureaucracy of the system and his inability to effect change. Canada quit teaching and became an education consultant, which brought him back to New York City. As a consultant, Canada studied the pitfalls of public schools and sought to strengthen the system through his own method of reforms that had never been done before. His model was controversial and radical yet simple. Since 1997, Canada has provided a pipeline for his students to follow from birth to college, giving them a safety net so they would never fall off track. Harlem's Children's Zone has been described as a miracle and President Obama plans to replicate its success in cities across the country.