his story is next.

for the first time ever, the ncaa tournament selection committee, their first top 16 seeds. the number one overall is villanova. and butler is sneaking in their as a number 4 see. a famous mess with their seven you probably haven't heard of. creighton freshman kobe paras grew up in the philippines. rather than following the footsteps of fame, he opted to move to the states in high school to pursue his dreams of playing in the nba.

>> kobe is about 450,000 followers. >> i remember asking my sister, who is this kid. >> he could maybe dunk on lebron. >> my family is kind of a big thing in the philippines. >> i've heard a lot of stories about kobe and his dad, like the michael jordan of that philippines. >> he's famous in basketball and a miss and acting. he started acting. it's impossible to coach them all. i didn't even know how famous my family was. so put it or not, i was like what is going on. >> sometimes i will joke because people will stop in at the mall. like, can i take a picture.

he is kardashian status. >> you know i am the man. >> it was like a filipina family who had -- and i thought it was going to be a normal kid for ones. >> we were in new york and there was a store clerk and he just kept following is everywhere. chicken of time and said and are you kobe paras, and she immediately started crying from seeing him. started crying from after one of the games we had this year, we were in the locker room excited and then coach had to escort her out, an adult woman, yes. >> i don't really know because he never talks about it. i've heard the story. i've never heard video. >> going is whatever happened that day, the country exploded.

>> i didn't really dunk on him like every basketball player would know that i could dunk on him. >> you always think know. >> he is my idol so just playing against a mini really happy. >> kobe is the most impressive dunker on the team. >> and his whole forearm will be read. and i say is that from the rim? >> it is huge. it is a religion. >> in the philippines everything was being handed to me and away, which is really something that i wanted to do. >> coming to america helped him get on a stage and a lot of kids are not like that. >> like question for me is why not be more successful and be more passionate.

>> he definitely doesn't family behind, he left in the entire country behind just pursue his dreams. >> he is a guy that believe has a chance to make it. he is carrying the hopes and dreams of a nation. >> i want to make my country proud so i can represent them in a good way. >> nate is the radio analyst for creighton, so you've gotten to know kobe a lot better than we have. >> he's a great kid. the first time i saw, he went right up to be a ship my hand did you see a lot of kids get in the limelight have a lot of success early. somewhat that can create an attitude problem. i think all you have to do is watch them during the games. he hasn't had an opportunity to play at ten, but he is the most enthusiastic guy at the end of the bench, and i think that speaks volumes to the kind that humility that he has, even with all the celebrity status he has in the foul is on instagram.

>> i think you have dealt with big-time guys in the us. what does that make it different to coach him. >> i had the opportunity to meet them as well. i think because he's grounded, that is going to bode well for his future and i also think omar is a perfect fit for him. initially he was going to sign ucla. that is jim harris on the freight at a collision in the all-star game in southern california. he was one of the all-stars that day and was recognized and played well. he had a good feel for the game at a tremendous athlete. i think that you will develop under great mcdermott at creighton. and a smaller town is probably a better fit for him. you can't get in trouble. >> note to self, we might have to shift you to omaha. >> we talked about that. >> coming up but inside the big east. we take a look back at the way

it was as we go all access inside the house and locker room from around the league. >> do it again. [cellphone ring] uh oh, should have put that phone on silent. luckily, jay chews trident to help clean and protect his teeth, so he can hide his guilt with a convincing grin. that's it jay, they'll never know. trident. cherish your teeth.

>> you guys, you got to stay on the attack. >> last time we were in this predicament, we were at home. it is the exact same situation. cannot get them the second shot. >> we just had to dig him down here. five guys go find body and then you have to go get the ball. >> we are waiting for somebody else to go get it. you go get it. >> i see you all working baby. just box them out. >> take away the 3.

>> what just happened at their? was that a second street character like cookie monster. >> we will see you next week on inside the big east.

(upbeat fun music) - you're watching teen kids news. i'm livia. here's this week's top story. (groovy instrumental music) nobel peace prize winner, nelson mandela, famously said, "education is the most powerful tool "you can use to change the world." and while there are many ways and places to get an education, many of us are setting our sights on college, and it's no secret that getting into a good college is no walk in the park. but as alexandra reports, there are things you can do to increase your chances. - while there are thousands of colleges in the us. most of us can name many of the schools

that have reputations for being the hardest to get into. - you know, the ivies like harvard, yale. - princeton. - columbia. - cornell. - all the ivy leagues. - university of virginia, ucal even. - northwestern. - vassar. - carnagie mellon. - duke, syracuse. - u chicago. - mit and like university of california. - stanford. - georgetown. - and there are lots of others. but still, getting into a good college can be daunting. to give us some advice, we're joined by jason ma. he's a college prep coach as well as the author of the book, young leaders 3.0. hi, jason. - hi, thanks for inviting me. - how important is it to get into one of the top colleges? - i think it would depends on your own ambition and your aspirations. if you want to really go for getting into the super-elite schools here, then you're gonna have to work a lot smarter and harder in preparation. but a lot of kids are happy with state schools and all that. and, you know, i would, if i said, don't think about college as your end goal.

it's part of your journey through your, toward your dreams and aspirations. - is it getting harder every year to get into a top school? - it is, and i think it's really largely due to an increasing number of applications per year. while the physical dorm room spaces remains constant or fairly similar. it's not gonna increase that much. so when you have more and more applications as the denominator, and then you have the same number of admits per year, then the admit rate is gonna keep on dropping. - when it comes to applying, what are some of the most common mistakes students make? - i think not paying attention, incomplete applications, lousy essays, not enough thought and time, i mean, elapsed time, not crunched time, to put into, you know, the effort in brainstorming, in drafting, rewriting essays and working to build great relationships with teachers.

and really underestimating what it really takes academically and non-academically in order to make you a competitive candidate. - how can we avoid making these mistakes? - i think like any successful person, whether you're in academia, in business, or in sports is really the quality and the length of your preparation. so you have to keep in mind that in order for you to have a great chance of getting into a top school or a good school, they, the schools really look at a combination of your academic performance and that includes your grades, the trend, the curriculum rigor. they look at your transcript on there, the courses you took, and they look at your new sat or the act with writing, your sat subject tests, or sat twos, and certain schools look for two or three, and those are just kind of ballpark materials for a lot of the top schools.

and then they look at your essays, your rec letters. so overall, it's much about character and story and how interesting you are. and whether they feel that you're gonna be successful on campus, in the school, and probably even in the future. - a lot of students think that the sats, acts, or their gpa are what count the most with colleges. is that true? - it depends on the college. if you apply to a number of state schools out there, and even some of the, many of the private schools that are not real top. they look at gpa. they look at a transcript, which is pretty much your academic performance and sats, and that's pretty much the bulk of what all of what they look at. but if you look at schools that require essays and rec letters, then, they really look at those as well. and it's a whole, it's more and more of a holistic way of lookin' at things. and if you're really looking at very elite schools, it's very, very holistic. - any final advice to help us become more attractive

to top tier schools? - i think really the quality of preparation. when i look at a successful person, the first thing that comes to my mind is not how successful they are, is, okay, i know they're successful. it's how did they get there? their mindset, their skillset, the strategy, the tactics, the pathways they took, probably the mistakes they've made. you know, what they've learned from that, so it's really, you know, if you want to go to a top school, it's not gonna be overnight thing. you know, oftentimes overnight success comes from years of learning and practice. - jason, thanks for the info. - thank you. thanks for inviting. - for the record, there are many successful people who not only didn't go to the top colleges, they didn't even graduate from any college. from food guru rachael ray to the genius behind apple, steve jobs, but if getting a college degree is your goal, you really need to do your homework before you apply. for teen kids news, i'm alexandra. - too much work for one person? i've got advice for building a dream team

to help you make the grade. we'll be right back. - closed captioning is brought to you by:

- do you sometimes feel overwhelmed with all the work you have to do for school? well, christin's here to help with this week's make the grade. - when it comes to studying, extra help can be very effective. it's as though you can clone yourself (chimes) and divide up the work. (snaps)

actually, a good study group is even better than cloning because you can use each individual's best set of skills. study groups are standard in law schools, but you don't have to be a legal scholar to use their techniques. here are some simple guidelines starting with whom you invite into your group. they do not have to be social friends, and you can have different groups for different classes. at the first meeting, discuss your goals, your rules, and your schedule. for example, be very clear about when meetings will be held and what will happen if someone misses a meeting or comes unprepared. if everyone understands what's expected, it's easier to work towards success together. (chimes) i'm christin helping you all make the grade. - we all know what the american flag looks like, but every state has a flag, too, and every one of them tells a story. here's our flag facts report. (upbeat drum music)

- louisiana holds a unique record. since the first europeans arrived, 10 flags were flown over the territory. that's more than any other us state. in 1519, spanish explorers planted their flag. they were followed by the french in 1682. later on, napoleon's tri-color was displayed. then, in 1763, great britain gained a foothold in the region. in 1810, local colonists united against the british under a flag known as the bonnie blue. finally, in 1812, louisiana achieved statehood. it looked like the stars and stripes were here to stay, but with the civil war, louisiana withdrew from the union. it declared itself a republic with its own flag, of course, but two months later, it joined the confederacy. louisianans would live under two different confederate flags before the war ended.

finally, in 1912, louisiana adopted the flag we see today. - the louisiana flag i love because it's a story of unconditional love. what the settlers saw, according to louisiana legend when they first arrived there, were these brown pelicans. and if food was scarce, what the mother pelicans would do is peck at their breasts until they bled and they would feed that to their young. so on the state flag, you see a mother feeding three baby brown pelicans. - eventually, louisiana adopted the brown pelican as it's official state bird. by the way, louisiana also has an official state donut called a beignet. it's fried dough with powdered sugar on top. fortunately, the official state drink is milk. with flag facts, i'm eric. (patriotic music) (crashes) - believe it or not, it's against the law in california

to bathe two babies in the same tub at the same time. makes you wonder. how do parents in the golden state handle twins? - when teen kids news continues, i'll show you how you can charge cell phones without electricity. we'll be right back. some of the things we use every day. but there are simple ways even teens can help make a difference. eden tells us more. - in many poor countries, putting up telephone wires is too expensive, so the only phone service people have is with cell phones. but when you realize that many of these areas don't have electricity, you see, there's a pretty big problem. how can you charge your cell phone when there's no place to plug it in? once again, we're joined by betsy teustch. she wrote the book, 100 under $100, one hundred tools for empowering global women.

betsy, if someone has a cell phone, but there's no electricity, how can they charge their phone? - well, that's a great question. fortunately, think about the sun. it beats down in the global south where we're talking about where there's the vast swath of property on the planet. those are very, very sunny places, so the trick is to harness the sun and figure out how to charge it. and we do that with solar panels. - so what's the inexpensive tool that can help solve this problem? - well, the inexpensive tool is a very small solar panel, which is on this lamp, which also has a usb port. so you leave this to charge all day long, about eight hours, and then, you can plug in your phone right into the charger here. and you can have your phone charged.

that way, you don't have to go somewhere else and pay someone else for phone charging, which is a big nuisance for people in the developing world when they have phones but not electricity. and by the way, this is also a lamp. so you can press it once, and you have low wattage. and you can press it twice, and it's a much brighter light. and then if you're using your light but you see that it's probably going to start running out, you can turn it down again to the lower wattage so that it will last longer. these are led bulbs, and they are so efficient that the entire charging panel is only the size of my hand. - that's pretty impressive. why did you write the book about empowering women? - i felt it was important for people to realize that yes, we have billions of very poor people in the world. and the vast majority of them are women and girls. but we also have a vast number of solutions that people have been working really hard

at figuring out, so i wrote a book because i wanted more people to get involved in being part of those solutions so that we can end poverty. - if any of our viewers want to help women get solar phone chargers, how can they? - there would be a lot of different ways to do it. a lot of these places are companies, so they don't really need charity. they need people to help get the word out. there are also lots of organizations. this one comes from an organization that i wrote about in my book. it's called unite to light, and you can buy one of these yourself, and they will donate one. for the cost that you pay, you get one, and they donate one. so you can also be a friend of the planet and charge your devices solar, and a family will get one in the developing world. - thanks, betsy. i'm looking forward to hearing about more of these tools

on future editions of teen kids news. - take care. bye. - if you're looking for a great service project, empowering women with solar powered chargers may just spark your interest. for teen kids news, i'm eden. - this important message is brought to you by the national road safety foundation. they want you to keep your hands on the wheel, your eyes on the road, and your mind on driving. - i was texting and driving and just didn't see the bus. (tires screech) - there was as stop sign. (car crashes) - the light was red. (car crashes) - a boy riding his bike. (tires screech) - the car in front of me had suddenly stopped. (tires screech) - there was a mom with a stroller crossing the street. (sirens blare) - what you don't see when you look down to text. - [boy] the stop sign. - [girl] the red light. - [girl] the boy. - [boy] the car. - [boy] the mom and stroller. - [girl] could change your life and the lives of others forever. (fun bright music)

- coming up, i'll tell you about a british statesman who truly proved that the pen is mightier than the sword.