Elsa Sanchez greeted a recent visitor with a dimpled smile, a firm handshake and an air of maturity that belies her 18 years. She explained that she learned to project this confidence only a short time ago, at her high school.
In the first years at the school, the Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics, she was reserved and participated in few activities. Then a social worker suggested she see Lesly Almanzar, a program director at the school’s branch of the Children’s Aid Society, a nonprofit group that is one of the seven agencies supported by The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund.

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