Plans for College, Made More Likely With a Laptop Xavier Cruz, 14, at St. Ignatius School in the Bronx, where he can get extra help after classes. The journey from home to school is an effortless walk for Xavier Cruz, 14, who just strolls around the corner and down the block. But considering where he is going, he may as well be traveling to another world. Since the sixth grade, Xavier has attended St. Ignatius School, an educational oasis in Hunts Point, a Bronx neighborhood known for rampant crime and grinding poverty. The mission of the school, which is run by Jesuit priests and brothers and financed by private donors, is to provide a high-quality education to a select group of students in grades six through eight. "I was excited to be there," said Xavier, whose family has lived in the neighborhood for 15 years. I was also nervous because I'd never been to a private Catholic School, so I didn't know what they'd require from me. I believed it would be a little bit harder. Math class was the hardest, Xavier said, but thanks to the extra lessons provided in an after-school program at St. Ignatius, it is his favorite subject. "The teachers are really good there," he said. They communicate with you. These teachers have respect for you. They treat you well. Xavier, now an eighth grader, plans to one day attend college and secure a more financially stable lifestyle than his family - his mother, Daysi Moreno, and his brother, Roel Moreno, 21 - is accustomed to. The three live in a small apartment. The brothers share the bedroom, while Ms. Moreno spends her nights on a twin bed set up in the living room. The bed, she said, is uncomfortable, and the living room, which is not air-conditioned, gets quite hot in the summer. Ms. Moreno said she was happy to make the sacrifice. "My sons are the most important thing," she said. I'd sleep on the ground if I had to. Ms. Moreno sells ices from a street cart from April to October, but is now looking for other work. Xavier's brother is also unemployed; he lost the job he held as a housekeeper in a nursing home. Mr. Moreno said he took a semester off from his course work at Bronx Community College to find a job. He is still searching. "My mom struggles to stretch a dollar," Mr. Moreno said. It's really hard seeing her like that and not be able to do anything about it. Their circumstances have created a mutual sense of support. Even with their seven-year age difference, the brothers are very close. "We may clash heads once in a while, but at the end of the day, we put those problems aside and focus on the fact that we're family," Mr. Moreno said. It was his older brother, Xavier said, who instilled in him the importance of steering clear of the bad influences that are ubiquitous in the neighborhood. Xavier's ambition is to study computer science in college, a logical career choice, said his brother. Xavier has always been a hands-on child who enjoyed figuring out how things work. "We used to buy toys and he would take them apart and put them back together," Mr. Moreno said. He's always been that type of person. Recently, Xavier had some problems completing his homework because he did not have a computer. "It was hard for me to look up things, write my essays," he said. Since the family could not afford to buy Xavier a computer, Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New York, one of the agencies supported by The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund, provided $390 for a laptop. Now properly equipped for his studies, and supported, as he always has been, by a loving mother and protective brother, Xavier said he had all that he needed. "Even though we struggle, we still keep our head up," he said.