we go further, so you can. >> when president obama visits argentina this week, he will be meeting this man, the new president, mauricio macri. as you will see tonight, macri is working hard at changing the mood in the second largest country in latin america? how? by working with the opposition. imagine that. >> i am ready to work. do you agree that we need to work to overcome poverty? we with have to defeat drug trafficking. we have to improve the quality of our democracy. yes, we will show our citizens that what they are demanding is going on, that we work together. >> when i called the president "a black puppet of wall street" i was really talking about the degree to which wall street had a disproportionate amount of

influence on his policies as opposed to poor people and working people. >> why use such harsh language with showing no respect for the office of the president? >> i tend to be one who just speaks from my soul, and so what comes out sometimes is rather harsh. >> turn to someone to your right or left, remind them "i love you! i love you!" >> the day begins with a chant they call "the affirmation." >> you can be -- >> you can be any good thing you want to be. go and conquer. >> do...go...and...conquer! happy thursday! >> and if you don't see discipline, just watch. >> see your group leader bruce davis has order in the palm of his hand.

>> i am steve kroft. >> i am lesley stahl. >> i am bill whitaker. >> i am scott pelley. >> those stories tonight on "60 minutes". >> this portion of "60 minutes" is sponsored by the lincoln motor company and the 2016 lincoln navigator. more room for the things that matter. alriwe could do tacos.hink boys? we could do some thai. ooo... how 'bout sushi, eh? (dog yawns) no, we're not having barbecue... again. (dog groans) why? because you're on four legs, and i'm on two... and i'm driving. that's why. (dog whines) sushi it is. lease a 2016 lincoln navigator for $599 a month only at your lincoln dealer.

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the life behind it. ♪ those who have served our nation have earned the very best service in return. ♪ usaa. we know what it means to serve. get an auto insurance quote and see why 92% of our members plan to stay for life. >> leslie stahl: there's a lot in the news about a wealthy businessman-turned-presidential candidate with a five-letter last name. but the one we're going to tell you about tonight already won his election, and his last name isn't trump; it's macri. he is the new president of argentina, a surprise, come- from-behind victor who has the

eyes of the region and the world on him as he tries to pull his country -- the second largest in latin america -- out of a morass of debt, inflation, and international isolation. this week, president obama will be the first u.s. president in more than a decade to visit argentina, a sign that the u.s. government has high hopes for mauricio macri and his promises to turn his country around. we met mauricio macri just two months into his presidency in argentina's version of the white house, a pink house, called the casa rosada. he took over a country that had been ruled for eight years by a left wing populist named cristina kirchner who allied argentina with anti-american regimes like iran, venezuela and cuba. >> stahl: here argentina has been in-- in this almost a bloc that takes in almost all of south america. >> mauricio macri: that was-- >> stahl: left-leaning. >> mauricio macri: not anymore.

that was, and not anymore. >> stahl: not anymore, because he made a u-turn in his country's foreign policy. in a flash, argentina has become pro-american. macri and vice president biden were all smiles at the world economic forum in davos, switzerland in january, where macri went seeking closer ties with the west and foreign investment. he brought one of the men he defeated in the election with him, which impressed the vice president. >> vice president biden: i want the american press to observe something. the new president brought along the leader of the opposition with him. that's what we got to do at home. >> macri: i really believe in 21st century. demands that we have to be open, and not putting any more ideological differences in front of the best solutions. >> stahl: he's a pragmatist. trained as an engineer, macri started off an outsider in argentine politics. he is the son of one of the wealthiest men in the country,

and worked at first in the family real estate and construction business, once making a deal with that other scion of a real estate empire. i heard that you actually have a relationship with donald trump. >> macri: it's a long story, long away. ( laughs ) >> stahl: it was more than 30 years ago. macri told us his father had invested in a real estate venture in new york city but ran into problems and asked him to arrange a sale, to donald trump. >> macri: it was a very unique moment for me because i was only 24 years old. >> stahl: you negotiated with the guy who says he's the best negotiator in the world? >> macri: he thinks that, yeah. ( laughs ) i don't-i'm not so sure. i'm not so sure. >> stahl: did he win? >> macri: we were in a very weak position. because the-- he was local. having the support of all the banks. but, i could say that we tied. >> stahl: now at 57, he's happily married to fashion designer juliana awada.

watching them play with their four-year-old daughter antonia, you can't help but think of the kennedys and camelot, and the comparison has been made in argentina. when macri ran for president, no one thought he would win, partly because of his image as a wealthy businessman unable to connect with the people. but that image was softened by campaigning with his wife and young daughter at his side, and by their openness about their relationship. >> juliana awada: i never imagined i was going to end-- with him. and when i have the opportunity to met him, i fall completely in love. ( laughs ) >> stahl: that was seven years ago. he'd already been married twice and had older children, as did she. >> macri: i call my best friend. i told him, "i'm going to marry again." "no, come on, you can't do it. ( laughter ) you have just finish a relation two months ago." "no, this is the lady of my life. i want to be with her for the rest of my life, and i'm sure

that this is the correct decision." >> stahl: at their wedding the following year, macri revealed a hidden talent. >> macri: i'm a great singer. >> juliana: ah. ( laughs ) >> stahl: you're a great singer? he set out to prove it at their wedding party. he dressed up as his favorite rock star, freddie mercury of the band "queen," complete with a fake moustache, and started serenading juliana. it almost killed him. >> macri: and in the moment i was breathing to sing the-- up part of "somebody to love," i swallow my moustache. >> stahl: you swallowed the moustache-- he started choking on the freddie mercury moustache. >> macri: it end up here. it didn't go-- it didn't go down. so i spend like-- >> juliana: twenty minutes. >> macri: twenty minutes. >> juliana: half an hour. >> macri: thinking that i was going to die. i couldn't breathe. now is funny, but-- ( laughs ) it was a horrible moment, yeah. >> stahl: you've had a couple of brushes with death, actually. >> macri: no, no. this was quite funny. the other one wasn't so funny.

>> stahl: no. the other one happened when he was 32. he was grabbed off the street, and kidnapped. is it true when they kidnapped you, they put you in a coffin? >> macri: yes. to take me to the place. and then in another little bit bigger coffin. it was a box. >> stahl: he was held for 14 days. did you think you'd never live through that? macri: you keep thinking all the-- all day because you are trapped there with nothing to do, so you think i'm going to die, i'm not going to die. because in many cases, that group of kidnappers killed the victims. >> stahl: but he was released, after his father paid a $6 million ransom. the incident changed the trajectory of macri's life, dramatically. it persuaded him to leave his father's business and set out on his own. first he became president of one of argentina's most popular soccer teams, boca juniors.

he then tried his hand at politics. he created his own third party and eventually ran for mayor of buenos aires. on his second attempt, he won. that's when a whole new macri emerged. dancing has become a macri trademark. you're known for this. ( laughs ) >> macri: you know, dancing is like-- it's another way of communicating, no? >> stahl: you know, i've heard it said-- no offense, "dad dancing." >> macri: dad dancing? >> stahl: older man dancing-- >> macri: no, no, no, no. ( laughs ) >> stahl: i've heard that. >> macri: no, no. you have to watch it. ( laughs ) you have to watch my performance. because is advanced dancing. there are so innovating steps. i dream them. first i dream them and then i perform them. ( laughter )

>> stahl: macri got to live out two dreams in december when he danced on the balcony of the presidential palace at his inauguration, after a close, hard-fought election that left the country bitterly divided. even the transition was contentious. breaking tradition, the outgoing president cristina kirchner refused to attend the swearing in. kirchner had been a charismatic leader, in the style of the popular eva peron, who shared the spotlight with her husband, president juan peron, in the 1940's, and whose legend went all the way to broadway. >> ♪ don't cry for me, argentina. ♪ >> stahl: the peronist party has dominated argentine politics on and off for the last 70 years. kirchner was a peronist, whose populist economic policies: generous subsidies on things like electricity, high taxes on agricultural exports, burdensome regulations, a bloated

bureaucracy, and currency controls, all in combination, crippled the argentine economy. >> alfonso prat-gay: she left an economy that's not been growing for four years now, a stagnant economy. >> stahl: alfonso prat-gay is president macri's minister of finance. >> prat-gay: high inflation. eight years in a row of more than 25% inflation. a significant fiscal deficit. the central bank was running out of reserves. >> stahl: this is what you walked into. >> prat-gay: absolutely. >> stahl: and making matters worse, the government bureau of statistics, called indec, had been minimizing the problems. >> prat-gay: the national statistics institute was an institute that was basically lying to us and to the rest of the world. >> macri: they were issuing wrong numbers. >> stahl: fake numbers? >> macri: fake-- >> stahl: phony numbers, just made up statistics? >> macri: exactly. what the president wanted. >> stahl: and it wasn't real-- >> macri: and that's not the way. that's not the way. >> stahl: ( laughs ) no. >> macri: if-- if you have a problem, you have to recognize it and solve it. that-- that's my commitment, no? >> stahl: so do you even know

what the inflation rate is? do you even know what the budget deficit is? >> macri: we are building up the real numbers. >> stahl: even without those precise numbers, he and his team plunged into action, undoing kirchner's legacy. what has heads spinning here is the speed with which they have changed course 180 degrees, in just a matter of weeks. >> stahl: you have cut export taxes dramatically, you've let your currency float, you've cut electrical subsidies. >> macri: yes. >> stahl: fired thousands of government workers. you have done so many dramatic, big things. >> macri: well, but we need it. we need it because we need to put our country back to growth. we were trapped with so many rules, that we couldn't move. >> stahl: but he raised eyebrows by making the changes while the peronist-dominated congress was in their summer recess. most if not all of the things you've done, dramatic, big, you

did by presidential decree. congress is on recess. you didn't negotiate with them. you didn't consult with them. >> macri: i'm using the constitution. i will always respect my constitution, it's a very good one. >> stahl: but you criticized cristina kirchner for doing that. you said she didn't go through the democratic process. >> macri: lesley, i only criticized her when she did it going over the constitution. >> stahl: you say that, but you've been highly criticized, just making all these decrees. >> macri: well, you know-- at a certain level always the opposition has to criticize something. let them. >> stahl: macri has worked hard at winning over as many in the opposition as possible. he met early on with the two men he ran against as well as all the nation's governors, and since congress has come back, he's shown his political skill by convincing a whole bloc of peronist legislators to work with him. >> macri: i have received all of them, and say, "well, i'm ready to work. do you agree that we need to

work towards zero poverty? we have to defeat drug trafficking. we have to improve the quality of our democracy." well, yes. well, let's find in which specific projects we can do it. and we found-- we found, and we are finding that there are ways in which we can cooperate, even though in two years we are going to compete again in an election process. but in the meantime, we will show our citizens that what they are demanding, is going on. that we work together. >> stahl: what a concept: two sides looking for compromise. the public seems to like it. macri's approval ratings are over 60%, but it's early. trade unions are threatening strikes, and the only other non- peronist presidents in over 30 years were both forced out of office before the end of their first terms. what's the pressure like on you at this moment? you're doing so much so quickly. >> macri: that we have to do more. ( laughs ) that's the pressure. we are in a very bad starting

point, but let me tell you, i'm here running the country because i believe in my people. i have the luck to choose what to do in my life. and i have chosen this because i believe that everybody can do much better than what they are doing now. so i'm trying to do my best. trying to do my best. >> stahl: after we interviewed him, another big development. president macri has settled a multi-billion dollar battle with new york hedge funds that will allow argentina, after 15 years, to once again raise financing overseas and help attract foreign investment. >> cbs money watch update brought to you by: >> good evening. the c.e.o.s of nearly a dozen u.s. companies arrived in cuba

today along with president obama. for the first time iraq exported a shipment of natural gas. and tomorrow apple is expected to unveil an updated ipad and iphone. i'm michelle miller, cbs news.

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or have an entourage. cornel west has a message about how poor and disadvantaged americans are being treated today and he can be searingly provocative on matters of race, never more so than when he criticizes president obama. >> cornel west: when i call the president "a black puppet of wall street," i was really talking about the degree to which wall street had a disproportionate amount of influence on his policies as opposed to poor people and working people. >> brown: why use such harsh language with-- showing no respect for the office of the president? >> cornel west: i tend to be one who just speaks from my soul, and so what's-- what comes out sometimes is rather harsh. in that sense i'm very much a part of the tradition of a frederick douglass or a malcolm x who used hyperbolic language at times to bring attention to the state of emergency. so all of that rage and

righteous indignation can lead one not to speak politely sometimes. >> brown: eight years ago, cornel west was a fervent supporter of candidate barack obama. today, he blames the president for not doing more on issues like income inequality and racial justice. a product of the turbulent sixties, west has joined protests led by civil rights groups like black lives matter. here in ferguson, missouri, he was one of many arrested for civil disobedience. the young people who are leading the black lives matter charge, you're all behind them? >> cornel west: oh, very much so. i think that's a marvelous new militancy that has to do with courage, vision. the fundamental challenge always is will their rage be channeled through hatred and revenge or will it be channeled through love and justice. you got to push them toward love and justice. >> brown: why do you think you have that kind of currency with young people? >> cornel west: they know that i

take their precious lives seriously. when i go to jail in ferguson and say quite explicitly, "i'm old school, and i want the new school to know that some of us old folk love y'all to death" and they hear that and say, "well, dang, you know, we might not always agree with this brother, but this negro looks like a fighter for justice." >> this is what democracy looks like. justice! >> nyle fort: i think a lot of young people really gravitate towards him not only because he's-- a giant of an intellectual. he is somebody that you want to be around. >> brown: nyle fort is a 26 year old activist and religion p.h.d. student at princeton. he first saw west speak at a rally four years ago. the manner in which doctor west has been criticizing the president. your reaction? >> fort: i think it's important for us to listen to the substance of his argument. and i think that his critiques not just of president obama, but

of our current state of democracy in this country, the current state of the world, is something that we need to pay attention to. >> brown: a favorite on the lecture circuit, we were with him at marist college in poughkeepsie, new york ... ( applause ) ...when the crowd of 1,500 broke into applause before he said a word. ( applause ) then, for more than an hour, an extemporaneous journey filled with biblical passages and quotes from philosophers and poets about decency and virtue. all in support of west's warning about the dangers of inequality. >> cornel west: i have nothing against rich brothers and sisters. pray for them very day. ( laughter ) ( clapping ) but callousness and indifference, greed and avarice is something that's shot through all of us. >> brown: cornel west has diverse influences to say the least; crediting jazz giants john coltrane and sarah vaughn

with helping him understand human suffering. west sees civil rights pioneer, rabbi abraham joshua heschel as one of the great treasures of the 20th century. >> cornel west: it's never a question of skin pigmentation. it's never a question of just culture or sexual orientation or civilization. it's what kind of human being you're gonna choose to be from your mamas womb to the tomb and what kind of legacy will you leave. >> brown: cornel west was born 62 years ago in oklahoma, but grew up in glen elder, a predominantly black neighborhood near sacramento, california. he is the second of four children. his father, clifton, was a federal administrator and his mother, irene was a teacher. they were a close-knit, church- going family. >> cornel west: i feel as if i have been blessed to undergo a transformation from gangster to redeemed sinner with gangster proclivities.

>> brown: you actually were a thug when you were a youngster? >> cornel west: oh absolutely, i got kicked out of school when i was seven years old. >> brown: doing what, dr. west? >> cornel west: i refused to salute the flag because my great uncle had been lynched with the flag wrapped around his body. so i went back to sacramento and said, "i'm not saluting the flag." and teacher went at me and hit me, and i hit back. and then we had a joe frazier/muhammad ali moment right there in the third grade. >> clifton west: he was the only student i ever knew that came home with all a's and had to get a whipping. >> brown: clifton west is cornel's brother, best friend and was his role model growing up. he says behind his little brother's bad behavior, was a relentlessly curious mind. >> clifton west: we had this bookmobile. and we would come out, and check out a book, and go on back in the house and start reading it. so corn, at one point, i don't know how long it took, he had read every book in the bookmobile. >> brown: excuse me? >> clifton west: i don't know. it had to be 200 books, easy.

and the bookmobile man, who was a white guy, went to all the neighborhoods, little chocolate neighborhoods, saying, "there's this guy in glen elder that read every book in here." ( laughs ) >> brown: anecdotes like that convinced teachers to give their troubled student an aptitude test. west's recorded i.q.: 168. >> cornel west: i got a pretty high score. so they sent me over all the way on the other side of town. mom used to drive me all the way to school and then drive back to her school where she was teaching first grade. >> brown: the new school had a gifted program that challenged his mind and changed his behavior. was that when you first grabbed hold of the notion that you were smart? >> cornel west: you know, i-- i never really thought i was that smart. because there was so many other folk in school that i was deeply impressed by. but i'll say this, though, that i've never really been impressed by smartness. >> brown: really? >> cornel west: not really. >> brown: because? >> cornel west: i'll say let the phones be smart. i want to be wise. i want the courage to love. i want the courage to sacrifice. i want the courage to be

nonconformist in the face of injustice. adolf hitler was smart. i'm not impressed by that, you see. >> brown: harvard university accepted cornel west in 1970, which is where i first met him, we shared a suite with four other students and 46 years later, he still delights in maintaining his 70's afro. >> cornel west: this is ohio players, charles wright & watts 103rd street rhythm band. what you talking about, brother? always, ever ready-- ever ready. ( laughs ) >> brown: doc, you still have your pie rake? >> cornel west: ever ready. i go to jail with this thing. ( laughs ) >> brown: so when you go through security at the airport and you pull it out, what-- what do they say? >> cornel west: i got to explain it to them. i'm not gonna hurt nobody. i'm just taking care of my 'fro. ( laughs ) absolutely. >> brown: cornel west graduated harvard magna cum laude in only three years and moved on to princeton where he became the school's first black student to earn a p.h.d. in philosophy.

he taught in the religion and african american studies departments at harvard and princeton. west authored 22 books in 30 years. dr. eddie glaude: you can get lost in the expansiveness of cornel's intellect. >> brown: eddie glaude is chair of african american studies at princeton. as a grad student, he remembers helping west fact-check one of his books. dr. glaude: he was doing all the footnotes by memory. so-- >> brown: excuse me? >> dr. glaude: yeah, he was-- doing all the-- >> brown: memory. >> dr. glaude: --footnotes by memory. right. and so he asked me to go get a book, because he wanted to check a footnote. and so i went to the library and i got the book and i brought the book to him. and he kept looking at the book and he was confused. he turned to the page. he couldn't find-- turned it over. "oh, it's the wrong edition." >> brown: the wrong edition. >> dr. glaude: the wrong edition. i went and got the right edition. turned to the page. there it all was. >> brown: in 1993, west wrote his seminal book, "race matters." a provocative examination of how

race affects the lives of americans, just as the country was transfixed by the rodney king trial. the book catapulted him on to the national stage and into popular culture. so how much does race still matter, twenty years on? what's the current state of race in america in your mind, dr. west? >> cornel west: we're in bad shape. we're in bad shape. for the upper middle classes, we've got unprecedented opportunities and we deserve those opportunities. we've worked very hard. our people sacrificed to make sure those opportunities were available. but poor black, brown, red people are catching so much hell on every level: education, job market, mass media, family's weak, communities shot through with too many guns and drugs. we acted as if we could evade it

and avoid it. that's what barack obama did for the first six years. he held it at arm's length. and of course, what happened? you end up with a black lives matter movement under a black president. what does that say? now, that doesn't mean that the president ought to take full responsibility for the race question. no, we got 400 years of this. but you have to be willing to be courageous and be unafraid to hit it head on. >> brown: west says he gave 65 campaign speeches for mr. obama in 2008, but their relationship changed drastically after his criticism started. when's the last time you've been in contact with the white house? >> cornel west: oh, i have no contact with the white house at all. the white house confirmed that but declined to comment further for this story. allies of the president have criticized west, claiming his ego suffered by not being invited into the president's inner circle eight years ago. there are those who see it as

more of a personal spat. some even superficially said, "well, wait a minute. how could dr. west break ranks with the president of the united states?" is it simply a matter of he-- you didn't get tickets to the inauguration? >> cornel west: right. no, no. every speech that i gave, all 65 speeches, i said, "i'm gonna do all i can to push my dear brother, barack obama and his precious family, into the white house. the day he wins, i will break dance in the evening. the next morning i will be his major critic because i'm critical of the system." so i told folk, i said, "i'm gonna be the major critic of the president after he wins." >> furman: professor west and i occasionally will say something, i know you're going to be shocked, controversial ( laughter ) >> brown: we found west to be as passionate a listener as he is a speaker. watch him here in south carolina, sharing the stage with conservative robert george. or in class with his students at

union theological seminary in new york. rather than needing to lead every important conversation, cornel west prefers to be a part of them. >> cornel west: i think human history for the most part has been a cycle of hatred and revenge and indifference and callousness to the weak and vulnerable. but we're experiencing an awakening. that's what happens in america. right when america's about to go under, you get a spiritual and moral awakening. ♪ our parents worked hard so that we could enjoy life's simple pleasures. now it's our turn. i'm doing the same for my family. retirement and life insurance solutions from pacific life can help you protect what you love and grow your future with confidence. pacific life.

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>> scott pelley: saint benedict's prep was 100 years

old when time ran out on newark, new jersey. it was 1967, and all hell broke loose around the very proper, very white catholic boy's school. unemployment, racism, and police brutality had ignited the inner city. and even the monks who ran saint benedict's, lost faith. but the school's namesake, the patron saint of students, must have seen the future. because no generation needed the resurrection of saint benedict's more than the minority kids who now filled its neighborhoods. before newark had a skyline, st. benedict's red brick campus rose on a hill. over decades, its walls have grown but it's no citadel against the world. >> ♪ always want to be a hero, hero! now i've got me a hero, hero! ♪ >> pelley: inside is the inner city. half the boys are black, another third hispanic, and nearly all

come from low income neighborhoods. they call each other "brother" and every morning all 550, grades seven through 12, celebrate a revival. >> turn to somebody on your right and left and remind them, "i love you! i love you!" >> pelley: their day begins with a chant they call "the affirmation." >> you can be! you can be! >> pelley: you can be any good thing you want to be. "go and conquer." >> you...go...and conquer! happy thursday. >> pelley: and if you don't see discipline, just watch. senior group leader bruce davis has order in the palm of his hand. >> hands down! >> pelley: this is a large part of what makes st. benedict's rare and successful.

students are required to run much of the school. davis is their elected leader. >> bruce davis: benedict's men are different than the guys you see outside, you know every single day. we learn what we're willing to accept, which is nothing but the best, nothing but finishing what we started. >> pelley: students are organized into groups that compete for the top grades so the boys press each other to study. the student groups coordinate events and set the schedules. >> whatever hurts my brother, hurts me. >> pelley: that's the school motto, "whatever hurts my brother, hurts me." if one guy is missing you know about it? >> davis: i know who's missing, yeah. >> pelley: you ever send a team out to go find somebody who's out on the street? >> davis: that's exactly. you know, if he's out, if the parents don't know where he is, we have to find him cause he has to be in school. >> pelley: putting students in charge was a revelation, nearly

50 years ago of this benedictine monk, headmaster edwin leahy. >> edwin leahy: it's a population that never gets to have control. >> pelley: with the kids running their school i wonder how often do you have to get in front of a really bad decision? >> leahy: you hope you can sort them out afterwards. >> pelley: afterwards, you let them make a mistake? >> leahy: yeah, because-- yeah, that's a better learning experience for them. >> pelley: you know there are teachers and administrators watching this interview right now who are saying he is describing chaos. >> leahy: i guess. >> pelley: chaos wasn't tolerated when leahy was a student here in the "white old days" of 1959. he joined the faculty shortly after the riots in '67 when white families were fleeing newark. and the decision was made to close the school. >> leahy: 1972, difficult decision. >> pelley: and there was talk of closing the monastery itself. >> leahy: there was some who wanted to do that and move it

somewhere else, yeah. >> pelley: not you. >> leahy: no, not me. >> pelley: the school closed for one year. then, leahy, at age 26, decided to try again. >> leahy: i didn't think it was right to be participating in the racism, to allow people outside to think that somehow that the school closed because of african americans, the increasing number of african americans. >> you didn't do anything to get the talent, somehow god gave it to you. >> pelley: he had no idea how to run a school. but he took inspiration from the good book, the boy scout handbook, which organizes boys to lead themselves. >> leahy: who's the assistant headmaster? >> pelley: for incoming freshmen, there is a boot camp. and during a sleepover in the gym they learn st. benedict's history and what's expected. >> ♪ ever dear saint benedict's ♪ >> davis: you need to be on the same page or else you will do it again! >> pelley: it can feel more like marine corps than common core.

>> you follow me, on me. on me. on me. >> pelley: ten years ago, a graduate enlisted midshipmen from the u.s. naval academy to add their "inspiration." >> midshipmen, get back there and start again! move! >> pelley: we got the sense the guys would have been happier without the help. >> why you on your knees while your brothers are pushing? >> davis: the main point is to make the freshmen, or the incoming freshmen, realize that the guys around him are there for him no matter how hard the situation can get. >> pelley: traumatized? not really. the boy scouts do it, the marine corps does it, street gangs do it. >> leahy: all the same thing. and it has the same structure as a gang except you can only be in one gang. you can only be in ours. if you're in another gang here in newark then you can't be here. >> pelley: st. benedict's is private. the school year is 11 months. and there is an entrance exam, but exceptions are made as you will see a little later.

a bigger barrier to families would be the annual tuition of $12,000. but 80% pay only half. which leaves leahy scavenging for another $6 million a year. it's the alumni who close that gap? >> leahy: alumni, business corporations here in town and the philanthropic community. >> pelley: god works in mysterious ways. >> leahy: all the time, all the time. >> pelley: and we discovered something mysterious about leahy. he cringes when you bring up sports. not because he's losing, his basketball team is ranked ninth nationally. his soccer team finished first in the nation. but leahy believes it is education that saves lives. devionne johnson is a sophomore we met in his downtown neighborhood. >> devionne johnson: this neighborhood is gang infested. >> pelley: devionne lives with his grandmother, a mile from st.

benedict's and a doorstep from trouble. you know when we drove up here and we got out in the parking lot and, we couldn't help but notice this. nine-millimeter right here in front of your house. >> johnson: yeah. >> pelley: you hear gunfire around here much? >> johnson: yeah. >> pelley: what have you seen? >> johnson: ten years in this neighborhood, i feel like i've seen it all. all it is the same situation, different faces. >> pelley: so how do you stay clear of that? >> johnson: first, you have to realize what type of person you want to be in life. >> pelley: devionne realized what kind of person he wanted to be while wandering in the wilderness. each spring, upperclassmen lead new students on a four-day, 55- mile hike. street smarts won't carry you

far on the appalachian trail. >> leahy: it's the only class in school that a 98 is a failing grade cause if you only get 98% of the way down the trail, you didn't get to the bus to bring you back home. >> pelley: in devionne's group, one classmate decided 98% was all he had. >> johnson: you got to keep pushing, bro. so i said, "you're not gonna quit in front of the camera. these are-- this is '60 minutes,' don't quit, keep going." so eventually, we finally make it up this mountain. and i was so relieved. >> pelley: at the summit they caught a breathtaking view of character. >> johnson: i'm just really excited to be here and i really want you all to know that i love all y'all. y'all my brothers.

>> bring it in! >> leahy: most of the problems in this country with, in urban america have nothing to do and especially in schools, have nothing to do with intellect. a lot of it has to do with emotional noise that these kids suffer. so it's a big challenge for us and to get the kids to realize their potential, the fact that they are a gift to somebody else. not easy. >> pelley: this is what he means. >> my dad got locked up again. >> pelley: the key for a lot of the boys is intensive counseling, including group sessions, led by psychologist ivan lamourt. >> as soon as i get angry, people laugh. and i want to do is start slamming people. >> ivan lamourt: there's no way that i can expect a student to sit in a classroom and learn algebra or religion or any other subject when they're in extreme distress, when they're emotionally broken. >> pelley: when you have a

teenage boy, a problem by definition, but he has been hurt in his life. how do you get through? >> lamourt: all about connectedness. all about teaching that young man that we're not going anywhere. because it's not us against them. it's us here, against them, out there. >> leahy: i tell people all the time i've seen dead people come to life, talk about resurrection, guys who couldn't talk. if you begin to get them to a point where they can work on it and talk about it takes a lot of time, grades will pop right up. >> pelley: who do you not reach? >> leahy: there's a lot of kids you don't reach. >> pelley: each year, about a dozen boys leave. but in a city where the high school drop out rate is about 30%, saint benedict's is 2%. >> pelley: one of the things we don't want to happen here is for us to lose guys.

that means we failed, like we failed them because we could not help them out to the point where they could stay. >> pelley: can't save everyone. >> davis: not, you know everybody. but we try to save as many as possible. >> pelley: which brings us back to those exceptions to the entrance exam we mentioned. andrew brice, number 14 in the blue cap had wandered from family to foster home to the street. two years ago, he was a stranger who snuck into water polo practice and asked for help. when you went to the coach and said, "i have trouble at home, i've been sleeping on the street, i'm not making it in the school that i'm in, i want to come here," what did he say? >> brice: monday you should be in school. >> pelley: "be here monday" turned out the coach was trained in lifesaving. almost no questions asked. >> brice: oh, there were questions.

>> pelley: andrew now lives on the monastery grounds, one of six students who have nowhere else to go. he hopes to make his way as a professional dancer. and from the looks of it, he's off on the right foot. he came here off a hard road. >> davis: yeah. it's been hard. he's not a quitter, you know. and that's another motto. benedict's hates a quitter. >> pelley: quitting is rare. 98% graduate and 85% earn a college degree. >> leahy: when i stand at graduation and i watch these guys leaving, it's not easy for me. the most satisfying part for me is not when they went to yale. the most satisfying part for me is can they introduce me to their kids? when i get introduced by one of our guys to his son and his daughter, i say "wow." that for me in the most meaningful. >> pelley: on graduation day, another class of seniors had willed each other up the mountain.

>> you can be! >> pelley: and their last chant of st. benedict's morning affirmation was shouted like prophesy. >> so, today you...go... and conquer! >> announcer: at st. benedicts, a boy's hoodie, like a monk's hood, must be earned. find out how at: 60minutesovertime.com sponsored by prevnar 13. what if one piece of kale could protect you from diabetes? what if one sit-up could prevent heart disease? one. wishful thinking, right? but there is one step you can take to help prevent another serious disease. pneumococcal pneumonia. if you are 50 or older, one dose of the prevnar 13® vaccine can help protect you from pneumococcal pneumonia, an illness that can cause coughing, chest pain, difficulty breathing, and may even put you in the hospital.

even if you have already been vaccinated with another pneumonia vaccine, prevnar 13® may help provide additional protection. prevnar 13® is used in adults 50 and older to help prevent infections from 13 strains of the bacteria that cause pneumococcal pneumonia. you should not receive prevnar 13® if you have had a severe allergic reaction to the vaccine or its ingredients. if you have a weakened immune system, you may have a lower response to the vaccine. common side effects were pain, redness or swelling at the injection site, limited arm movement, fatigue, headache, muscle or joint pain, less appetite, chills, or rash. get this one done. ask your doctor or pharmacist about prevnar 13® today. so we know how to cover almost alanything.ything, even a stag pool party. (party music) (splashing/destruction) (splashing/destruction) (burke) and we covered it, october twenty-seventh, 2014. talk to farmers. we know a thing or two because

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>> pelley: in the mail this

week: comments on our story about aid in dying. dr. jon lapook reported how physicians in states such as oregon now can prescribe medications to hasten death for terminal patients. some viewers found the practice troubling. but other viewers wished their loved ones had the option to end their suffering. and then there was this from a vermont viewer: i'm scott pelley. we'll be back next week with another edition of "60 minutes." tomorrow, be sure to watch "cbs

this morning," and i'll see you on "the cbs evening news."

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