The brutal murder of 7-year-old Nixzmary Brown last week set a somber tone Friday at the Children’s Defense Fund’s fund-raising luncheon.

To add to the gloom, in her keynote address, Senator Clinton, who once interned for the fund, raised concerns about priorities in Washington.

“Just last month, we cut $600 million in funding for foster care … which protects half a million of our most vulnerable people. Essentially we chose tax breaks for people like me and my husband instead. We also cut Medicaid – which means children and their parents may not get health care. Parents without health care may not be able to work and take care of their children,” Mrs. Clinton said.

As the light streaked through the gold curtains of the Rainbow Room, the mood lifted. The organization’s fighting spirit, and a sense of hope, emanated from the fund’s founder, Marian Wright Edelman; the head of the New York office, Donna Lawrence; the chairwoman of the event, Maureen Cogan, and the event honoree, lawyer Susan Thomases.

It shined brightest, though, in the five teenagers who spoke at the event, winners of the fund’s Beat the Odds scholarship.

“My mother was bringing the family down. She would steal from my grandmother,” Timothy Anderson, a student at Brooklyn High School for the Arts, said. Fortunately, his grandmother, Loretta, stuck by him and raised him.

“I will design a house for her someday,” Mr. Anderson, who has an internship at an architecture firm, and, according to one teacher, draws “like an urban da Vinci,” said.

When Teresa Xu came to America from China, she went to live with her mother, who had left her behind with her parents and had already established an other family.

“I’d come home from school and if no one was there, I’d wait outside because I didn’t have a key. Sometimes it was cold,” Ms. Xu said.

Things didn’t get better. Ms. Xu’s mother forced her to turn out the lights at 6 o’clock in the evening, and also read her diaries.

“I was happy to be removed from the house,” Ms. Xu said.

Even so, when she accepted her award Friday, she mentioned her mother. “Thank you to my mother for giving me life and the chance to experience life,” Ms. Xu said.

Judith Rosena has watched her father beat her mother many times. “She would just ignore it, call me over and say, ‘Let’s do your braids now,'” Ms. Rosena said.

Ms. Rosena chose not to let turmoil get in the way of her life. Starting school every day with a beaming smile, she has excelled academically and is vice president of the student government.

Where is she putting her award? “In my living room, where everyone can see it,” Ms. Rosena told me.

In his freshman year of high school, Ramell Stone was a substance abuser. He got a second chance at Phoenix Academy, where he completed a drug treatment program and started earning high school credits. Now he’s a senior at Independence High School preparing to apply to college. “I came to Phoenix for a reason. That reason was to get a good mind-set. Despite all the hardships I have been through, I’m still standing,” Mr. Stone said. “I’m stronger than ever. I know the possibilities are endless.”

“I am going to be an international criminal lawyer,” Abu Bakarr Sesay told the 325 guests at the event. Mr. Sesay’s background has already prepared him for the realities he will confront. Growing up in Sierra Leone, he witnessed civil war and had his education interrupted many times. But he was determined to continue with school. After leaving his village, he slept in a car in Freetown and worked odd jobs to pay for school fees and a uniform.

A break came when a family friend agreed to take him to America, but once here, the friend became abusive. That’s when Mr. Sesay sought help from Robert Diamond, a social worker in the Montefiore Medical Center School Health Program at DeWitt Clinton High School.

Mr. Sesay is grateful for the support he has received from Mr. Diamond, whom he called “the best guidance counselor in the world,” as well as others at DeWitt Clinton, such as Ernesta Consolazio, “the best tennis coach in the world.”

Once the ceremony was over, Mr. Sesay left his table and headed straight toward his foster father. The two embraced – an image that summed up the best possibilities for children with the fewest opportunities.