Popular photo-blog Humans of New York raised $1 million to help students at a public middle school in a crime-ridden neighborhood of New York City to visit Harvard University — on the strength of a single image.

The picture shows Vidal Chastanet, a 13-year-old boy who attends Mott Hall Bridges Academy in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Brownsville, which is considered one of the city’s most dangerous locations.

Two weeks ago, when street photographer Brandon Stanton asked Vidal who had inspired him most in life, he gave an answer that touched many people: his principal, Nadia Lopez.

"When we get in trouble, she doesn't suspend us,” Vidal told the photographer. “She calls us to her office and explains to us how society was built down around us. And she tells us that each time somebody fails out of school, a new jail cell gets built. And one time she made every student stand up, one at a time, and she told each one of us that we matter."

The teen’s gratitude for his principal’s actions struck a chord with countless viewers when it was posted to Humans of New York’s social media channels.

“I sat and watched the golden globes last week,” a Facebook user commented. “A whole night celebrating these actors...these people we pay to entertain us. Every award in the universe should go to people like Ms. Lopez... A lady who does not get paid enough to educate our youth and change lives.”

Stanton figured he could parlay the story's attention into fundraising through Indiegogo to help Lopez reach one of her goals: to take the incoming sixth-grade class on a tour of Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass.

“The buildings are filthy in the housing projects. Some people poop and pee in the hallways. And some of the..." pic.twitter.com/ebicKGtq5Y — Brandon Stanton (@humansofny) January 27, 2015

She thinks visiting one of the world’s top universities at a formative age will help expand the horizons of her students — many of whom have never left New York — and show them that they could one day attend such a venerated institution.

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“This is a neighborhood that doesn’t necessarily expect much from our children, so at Mott Hall Bridges Academy we set our expectations very high. We don’t call the children ‘students,’ we call them ‘scholars,’” she said.

At an assembly last week, Lopez announced to her student body that the campaign had far exceeded the school's expectations — raising more than $700,000.

“Before all of this happened for our school, I felt broken,” she told her students. “And I think the world felt a little broken too, because a lot of bad things have been happening lately, especially between black people and white people. But all of you gave people a reason to feel a little less broken.”

By Thursday morning, that figure had exceeded $1.2 million.

“I try to be very open with them about everything, because I want them to feel that they can be open with me..." pic.twitter.com/Ji2XguPXtl — Brandon Stanton (@humansofny) January 27, 2015

The money will go toward the Harvard trips, a summer program, and a scholarship fund.

Lopez says the school desperately needs a summer program so that the children can have a safe place to expand their minds year-round because it is too dangerous for them to step outside.

As an experiment, Lopez and several teachers broke into small groups and walked through the neighborhood's various housing projects to see how the young scholars live.

"The parks and playgrounds were empty because it’s too dangerous," she said, in an update on the Indiegogo page. "Even the library isn’t a safe zone. Just last Saturday, one of my scholars had two guns pulled on him while he was walking to the community center. In broad daylight."

Remaining funds will establish the Vidal Scholarship Fund, appropriately named after the teen who inspired everything. He will be the first recipient.

After all, it started with that chance encounter between Stanton and Vidal in the projects of Brownsville on Jan. 19. Initially, they discussed the dangers of growing up there.

"When you live here, you don't have too many fears,” Vidal said. “You've seen pretty much everything that life can throw at you. When I was nine, I saw a guy get pushed off the roof of that building right there."

Now, he will get to see Harvard. But first he stopped by the White House to visit President Obama, who extended an invitation after hearing his story.

“Ms. Lopez always said that there was no place her students did not belong. Recently we received an invitation that proved just that,” Stanton wrote in the caption to an image of Vidal in the Oval Office with Obama.

Visit the Indiegogo page to learn more or donate to the fund.