The Pact: Study Guide Questions Directions: Answer the following ...

The Pact: Study Guide Questions
Directions: Answer the following questions in complete sentences on a separate sheet of
paper, using correct grammar and punctuation.
Chapter 1: Dreaming Big by George
1. What was George’s dream?
2. Where did George spend the first seven years of his life? What was his favorite
place?
3. Was George’s mother or father the dominant figure in his life?
4. How does George describe his mother?
5. How was George’s stepfather? What did he eventually do?
6. Who does George say was the closest father figure he had? How do you think it
impacted his life?
7. What does George say he was blessed with? What did his third grade teacher,
Miss Johnson tell him that he believed?
8. Was George picked on for being different? Why or why not, do you think?
Chapter 2: Home by Sam
1. What does Sam always remember doing?
2. What could his mom not do? Did she graduate from high school?
3. What did Sam’s father do?
4. What did Sam’s mom do with his hair after it was first cut? Why did she do this?
5. What did Sam’s mom wake up at 4am to do? How are you contributing to your
community?
6. How does Sam describe his household growing up?
7. How old was Sam when his parents divorced? How did it affect him? What did
he have to do?
8. How many brothers and sisters did Sam have?
9. What happened to Kenny? To Rosalene? To Fellease?
10. What happened one day when Sam was with Andre?
11. What drug did many people become addicted to or sell? What was the result?
12. What sport did Sam play with his childhood friend, Noody?
13. Describe the backdrop (neighborhood and its surroundings) of Sam?
14. How do you think it affected the neighborhood’s occupants?
15. From an early age, Sam felt the pressure to ___________________ , or feel like a
chump and risk being isolated.
16. What did decide to steal?
17. What are the four things that friendship can do, according to Sam?
18. What was Sam first arrested for at age 13?
19. What did Reggie do for Sam, both literally and figuratively?
20. When did Sam begin to slip up?
21. According to Sam, how did students view other students who did well?
22. What did Sam’s sixth grade teacher, Ms. Schimmel, suggest that he do? Do you
think Sam’s life would have turned out differently had he not University High?

Chapter 3: Ma by Rameck
1. Where did Rameck live for much of his childhood? What did he call his
grandmother? Why was she so important to him?
2. When did Rameck’s mother, Arlene, give birth to him? Why did she become
pregnant?
3. What did Ma love to do?
4. Describe early childhood.
5. What did Mrs. Hatt do for Rameck? Who was she?
6. How did Rameck’s mother view his education, despite her drug use?
7. Where did his father spend most of his time?
8. What did Rameck’s grandmother teach him a great deal about? What did she tell
him about life?
9. How did Rameck’s mother and father meet? At what stage of life were they?
10. Who is Quamara?
11. What happened to Rameck’s father on his very first college Christmas break?
12. What happened when he returned to Assumption College in January?
13. Where does Rameck’s father work now?
14. What did Rameck ask God for?
15. What did his mother’s drug use rob her of?
16. What was Rameck’s first job? How old was he? What did he do with the money
made?
17. What career did Rameck first consider? Why?
18. What lesson did Rameck learn when he defied his grandmother’s wishes
concerning his acting portfolio?
19. What is the second lesson Rameck has to learn the hard way?
Chapter 4: Common Ground by George
1. What now well-know R&B star was George friends with?
2. Did the grades of George, Sam, and Rameck improve or decline in the latter years
of high school?
3. Why did the USO protest? What was the result?
4. What did Rameck do to his Biology teacher? What happened to him as a result of
his actions? Luck or fate?
5. What sport did both Sam and George play?
6. What college gave a presentation at University High that excited George and
prompted him to persuade Sam and Rameck to apply?
Chapter 5: Caged by Rameck
1. What were Rameck and his friends known for doing?
2. What did Rameck’s mother arrange for him to attend University High?
3. What did Rameck not have that he desperately needed? Do you have it?
4. What did Rameck and his friends do to the man who bought and smoked crack?
5. What happened to Rameck as a result?
6. Who did Rameck thank when his “ordeal” ended? How did his life change?

Chapter 6: A Big Break by Sam
1. What happened to Sam and Frank when they went walking? How old was Sam?
2. What happened on Sam’s seventeenth birthday? What was his response, even
though it was difficult?
3. Describe the money-making scheme devised by one of Sam’s friends.
4. What happened when Sam Marshall “drove out?” How old was he then?
5. What did Sam think everyday when he was locked up?
6. What did Sam decide he would do after his court hearing?
7. How did George say he managed to stay focused on his dream?
8. What did Sam realize he had to do in order to get more out of life?
9. What happened to the three other young men who committed the robbery with
Sam?
Chapter 7: Hope by George
1. What does George say was a motivator for them completing their college
applications?
2. Who was the first to be interviewed at Seton Hall?
3. Where was Rameck also accepted?
4. What happened to Ahi?
5. What gave George a feeling of calmness at graduation?
Chapter 8: Summer Odyssey by Rameck
1. Why did the boys go to Seton Hall in June, as opposed to in August, when the fall
semester began?
2. According to Rameck, how could he describe life for the first time?
3. According to Rameck, what is a child naturally influenced by?
4. How did the boys wake up each morning?
5. How did Rameck describe the first semester at Seton Hall?
6. What three pieces of advice did Carla give to the boys to help them attract
professors’ attention?
7. Where did the boys go on a weekend retreat? What did they do, and how did they
describe it?
8. How did the boys plan to decorate the bulletin board that highlighted the Pre-
Medical/Pre-Dental Plus Program at Seton Hall? What was Carla’s reaction?
9. What grades did Sam, George, and Rameck earn that summer?
10. What effect did the banquet have? Who came?
Chapter 9: Earth Angel by Sam
1. What did Carla learn and discover at the Black Issues Conference before she
interviewed the boys for the program? What effect did it have on her?
2. What did the author, Jawanza Kunjufu, write in Carla’s book?
3. Who became the three boys’ angel, according to Sam? What three things did she
do to them?
4. What did Carla make Sam do when he complained about a bad grade?
5. How does Sam describe Carla?
6. What did Carla say there was a need for?

7. Where do the boys live currently?
8. What happened to Kenny during Sam’s freshman year? How did Sam feel?
9. Where did Carla place the pictures of the boys?
Chapter 10: A Different World by Rameck
1. According to Rameck, what was his freshman year like at Seton Hall? What did
he run into?
2. Rameck had a bad ________ .
3. According to Rameck, most of his encounters with white people had been
_________________ .
4. What happened between Rameck and the white boy? According to Rameck, he
had no business _________________________ . But his mind was too filled with
_____________________ to accept a ________ thought.
4. What eventually replaced Rameck’s anger?
5. What did Rameck believe he did to the white boy?
6. Who came to Rameck’s door at 4 am?
7. What did Rameck think would happen to him?
8. What had Rameck never worried about? What were the results?
9. What did the white boy’s mother display? How did it affect Rameck?
10. What did he learn about white people?
11. Rameck recognized that he needed to _________________ .
12. Do you think his praying helped?
13. What did Rameck do to get into trouble again?
14. What did Rameck realize he had to do in order to change his life?
15. What had Rameck been taught all his life?
16. What did Bill push Rameck to do?
17. What was Rameck’s idea and how did he put it into action? What did the boys
want to do for children?
18. What did Sam, George, and Rameck do to raise money for their organization’s
fundraiser? Did it work?
19. How old were the boys when they planned their organization?
20. How did the boys get past the obstacles they faced? How would you describe
them in their pursuit of their goal?