Several years ago, InZone founder and Chicago native, Terrance Wallace, traveled to New Zealand on holiday. Blown away by the breathtaking scenery, he was alarmed and taken aback to see on the news about Maori and Pasifika’s youth falling through the cracks.

Seeing this news, struck a chord in Terrance. Back home in the US, he had seen the same statistics regarding African-American and Hispanic youth especially being one of them himself. After an incident of him barely escaping being gunned down during a carjack, Terrance realize he was given a second chance at life. With this second chance, he became determined to make a difference and it was in New Zealand he saw it.

He packed up his house in Chicago and moved to New Zealand. Setting his sights on Auckland’s sought-after “grammar school zone”, he found a home in the heart of the city’s wealthiest – and whitest – exclusive schooling area. He invited Māori and Pasifika boys with a desire to succeed to apply for a chance to move into the in-zone home and attend Auckland Grammar School. 

Now they would have access not only to highly resourced schooling, but – critically - Grammar’s extremely influential alumni network, which lies at the centre of the nation’s business and political inner circles. This, he decided, is how you break cycles.  As the boys overcame obstacles, dealt with setbacks, and ultimately made breakthrough successes, Terrance faced the pull of home, back to Chicago where many in the city – amid rising racial tensions and violence – are asking him to start the scheme in America. Back in the USA, he is now utilizing all of his knowledge from New Zealand, and facing new and different challenges in order to set up InZone Illinois, pulling together a new group of teens and youth workers to be pioneers on the other side of the world from where it all began.