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When running a charter school network feels like a huge pileup of paperwork and policy, and Emilio Pack loses his way a little, he glances at a picture of himself in elementary school.

He鈥檚 a chubby kid in homemade plaid overalls, still learning English, a true outsider at a school full of rich white kids in designer clothes.

Seeing that photo zaps him full of renewed energy and purpose. Pack, 50, is running , in a neighborhood of working-class immigrants, to give these children something he didn鈥檛 have: good choices right in their own neighborhood; schools with the power to lift them out of poverty.

Here, between the churches and check-cashing shops, Pack has built a sort of protective pipeline: an elementary, middle, and high school that aim to transform sneakered, Latino and African-American children into the high-tech problem-solvers of tomorrow, with college degrees and white-collar paychecks.

Not just any college degree is good enough for Pack鈥檚 students, though. And when he tells you why, his explanation is Essential Emilio: it blends a studied command of education and job pathways with relentlessly lofty goals and his own bittersweet life experience.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not enough for our kids to go to college, or even to finish college. Too many times we see our students of color defaulting to majors like ethnic studies or psychology,鈥� said Pack, whose bachelor鈥檚 and master鈥檚 degrees in psychology bought him years of modest paychecks as a school counselor and administrator. 鈥淏ut that鈥檚 not where the jobs or the money are.鈥�

Pack鈥檚 big project is just beginning. The high school, Math and Science College Prep, which opened in 2013, has had time to produce only two classes of graduates. The STEM Preparatory network added a middle school, Crown Preparatory Academy, in 2015, and a primary school, STEM Prep Elementary, in 2018.

But early results are promising. His students are outperforming those at the nearby schools they would otherwise have attended. More than three-quarters of the high school鈥檚 graduates have enrolled in four-year colleges鈥攁 stunning achievement in a neighborhood of Spanish-speaking immigrants who work in factories and restaurants鈥攁nd most have declared majors in science, technology, engineering, and math fields.

Forged by Hardship

The families Pack serves are like the one that forged him. He was born in a Los Angeles neighborhood tougher than this one, three months after his single mother arrived from Cuba in 1968. Lourdes Pack had been a dentist in Cuba, but lacked the credentials to practice when she came to the United States.

To pay the bills, she ran a black-market dental practice in the bathroom of the small apartment she shared with her son. She saved enough to buy a small house in San Marino, one of the city鈥檚 richest suburbs, so she could send her son to 1st grade at its famously top-tier schools.

But Pack didn鈥檛 fit in. Classmates in Lacoste shirts made fun of the overalls his grandmother sewed him, and of his Spanish accent.

Despite the hardships of those years, Lourdes Pack saw nothing but opportunity in her American life. She taught her son that every problem has a solution. That view would define the rest of his life, burnishing him into a can-do guy with an easy smile and a desire to make other people鈥檚 lives better.

Pack became a social worker and middle school counselor, then an assistant principal and principal at regular public schools around Los Angeles. He switched to the charter world in 2005, opening a series of schools for the Alliance College-Ready charter network.

Along the way, he earned a doctorate in education, and joined the faculty of Loyola Marymount University, where he designed leadership and talent-development strategies and launched a certification program for charter school leaders.

With all of that under his belt, Pack set out to open the first of the three STEM Preparatory schools. He encountered little of the often-fiery opposition that marks this city as a major battleground for charter-school expansion. It鈥檚 a remarkable feat colleagues attribute to Pack鈥檚 r茅sum茅 of hard work in schools, and his signature blend of advocacy and diplomacy.

Pack and his team structured the school around an inquiry-driven approach, where students begin by wrestling with questions, and teachers play the role of facilitators, guiding the process and adjusting instruction to respond to students鈥� needs.

They blended their own curriculum with Project Lead The Way, a national program of STEM study, and adapted it to the inquiry-based model. They created three pathways for students: computer science, engineering, and biomedical studies. Subject-matter teachers work side by side with those from Project Lead The Way, infusing the entire K-12 curriculum with science and technology instruction.

A warm fall afternoon at the high school found computer-science students writing code for a new project and engineering students calculating the force of a winch. The biomedical students were analyzing blood results from a fictional corpse to solve a murder mystery.

On a sunny playground at the elementary school a mile and a half away, 3rd graders were flying cardboard gliders they had built. Keeping careful logs of 12 test flights, they had revised their planes鈥� designs to get them to fly farther. Looking up from under his mop of ebony curls, Isaiah said he expected his plane to fly farther since he鈥檇 moved the 鈥渉orizontal stabilizer鈥� back a bit to improve its 鈥渓ift.鈥�

Experts in STEM instruction say there are many watered-down versions in K-12 classrooms across the country, but Pack鈥檚 isn鈥檛 one of them.

Matt Bragman, who oversees the 200-plus Project Lead The Way 69传媒 in Los Angeles County, said the STEM Prep schools have implemented the program with 鈥渦nbelievable fidelity and rigor.鈥�

鈥淭hey鈥檙e doing real-deal STEM over there,鈥� said Darryl Cobb, an electrical engineer who is a managing partner of the Charter School Growth Fund, which lends financial support to the STEM Prep schools. 鈥淭he high school he鈥檚 running is the high school I wish I鈥檇 had.鈥�

Sticking to a rigorous program when many students鈥� academic skills are weak is no small challenge, though. The STEM Prep schools try to plug those gaps with intervention classes and tutors. They鈥檝e also invested heavily in counseling for their 1,150 students: There are five full- or part-time counselors handling social-emotional issues, and six overseeing career and college planning.

Even still, academic growth is a work in progress. The STEM Prep schools do better than others nearby, but proficiency rates on state tests in some grades often hover in the 30-percent range, and scores have bounced around, sometimes far above, and other times below district and state averages.

Myrna Castrej贸n, the CEO of the California Charter 69传媒 Association, said that the 鈥渓ong-term power of what Emilio can do鈥� outweighs any 鈥渙ne-year blip鈥� in his schools鈥� test scores. Pack is breaking important ground by giving low-income, Latino children the kinds of schools typically found in wealthy suburbs, she said.

Much of Pack鈥檚 power derives from the way he hires his staff. He recruits aggressively and nationally, exploiting all corners of his professional network to hunt down promising candidates. He and his team have carefully designed interview questions to identify teachers who see his students鈥� potential, not just their challenges, and want to join a 鈥渇amily鈥� to serve and support them.

Once he鈥檚 got that family in place, Pack鈥檚 leadership style is highly collaborative; Castrej贸n describes him as a 鈥渃ome-along guy, not a scorched-earth guy.鈥� When there鈥檚 a problem, he turns to teachers for the solution.

Math teacher Josh Kronz, one of Pack鈥檚 original hires, recalled how he and a few colleagues approached the CEO to discuss what they saw as weak instructional skills in some of the more recently hired teachers.

Pack鈥檚 response was to do what he frequently does: he formed a 鈥渢eacher task force鈥� to hear out the problem fully. Together, they revised the hiring protocol, writing new interview questions and designing a model lesson that would better reveal candidates鈥� instructional styles.

鈥淗e鈥檚 the first one to say that we are the experts in teaching. He gives us that respect,鈥� Kronz said.

鈥楿ltimate Motivator鈥�

Teachers describe Pack as unfailingly supportive, popping into their classrooms to see how it鈥檚 going and what they need. They call him by his first name. They have his cell number, and know they can use it.

鈥淔or him there鈥檚 never a no,鈥� said Johana Parker, an 18-year veteran who joined STEM Prep鈥檚 first crew of elementary school teachers. 鈥淚f you need something, with him it鈥檚 not 鈥榃e鈥檒l see.鈥� It鈥檚 鈥榃e鈥檒l make it happen.鈥� He鈥檚 the ultimate motivator.鈥�

Even as he supervises a staff of 150, Pack finds time to nourish personal connections with students and staff members. Teachers say he and his wife, Janette Rodriguez-Pack, the network鈥檚 chief academic officer, regularly turn up at teachers鈥� barbecues, and 鈥渕ake all of us feel like family.鈥�

Jessica Hernandez, 18, who鈥檚 majoring in public health as a sophomore at the University of California-Merced, said Pack intervened repeatedly to help her get scholarships and arrange an internship at an accounting firm when she was building a record for college admission at Math and Science College Prep.

鈥淚 wouldn鈥檛 have been able to do half the things I鈥檓 doing now without Dr. Pack,鈥� said Hernandez. Her mother runs a mini-market and her father is a sewing contractor, and she worried she wouldn鈥檛 be able to afford college.

Stories like those are what keep Pack going, says his childhood friend, Stephan Pastis.

鈥淪ometimes he鈥檒l talk about one of his kids and what they鈥檝e accomplished, and he鈥檚 on the verge of tears,鈥� Pastis said. 鈥淗e has that pride, almost as if it was his own kid.鈥�

Librarian Maya Riser-Kositsky contributed research for this report.