It began when Washington, D.C., teacher Clint Smith asked his students to write memoirs. One student's story in particular of immigration and injustice prompted Smith to post a video that went viral with 100,000 views so far after it was shared by Upworthy. 

In the video, the poetic summarization of Maria's crossing the border between the United States and Mexico when she was a child is followed by Smith's outrage at how his talented student cannot enroll in college because of her history.

"We embedded apathy in the eyelids of this country and now we can't even see what's right in front of us," Smith said. "How convenient that we forget our own history."

Smith has published other videos of his poetic verses addressing the inequalities that he sees every day teaching in Washington, D.C.