NAP- Neighborhood Alliance of Pawtucket

Country Meets City

Chariho Teaming

'Country kids come to the hood'

on 04-08-2008 00:56 Pawtucket Times


By JON BAKER

PAWTUCKET — When the bell rang at 11:22 a.m., indicating the first of five lunch breaks at Shea High on Friday, hordes of students noisily filed into the cafeteria..

What’s new?
This, however, was no typical midday meal for Shea juniors Marie Toure and Vanessa DosSantos, or even freshman Luckson Omoaregba. Instead of munching on the ordinary with their school pals, they sat with what they deemed “new teammates,” a group from Chariho Regional High School, located in the “backwoods” of Wood River Junction., to enjoy a special “Mexican Fiesta.”
For Toure, her new pal was “Chaboogie” sophomore Will Foley; for DosSantos, 10th-grader Shannon Paquin; and, for Omoaregba, senior Matt Schmitz.
Before March 24, these student council representatives from both schools had never met. On that Monday, though, about 20 Shea teens trekked miles into the country to witness how the “Chaboogies” lived, dressed and studied.
This time, Chariho sent its entourage into the city to visit the Shea community.
In a nutshell, the program is called “Project Unity” — Charger freshman Janna Eaves apparently coined the nickname — and it’s “an opportunity for students with different cultures in two distant parts of the state to learn more about each other, and share such things as their classes, activities, hopes and dreams and even the diploma system,” said Shea principal Dr. Christopher Lord.
“This is like ‘Country Kids Come to the ‘Hood,’” Lord grinned. “I think the students from Chariho are seeing a wide range of cultures here. I mean, Shea’s student body represents approximately 50 countries and about 25 different languages. The whole idea behind this is to build bridges to understanding.”
How “Project Unity” came to be is rather simple. At a Rhode Island Principals Association meeting back in September, Chariho “head honcho” Bob Mitchell approached Lord and said, “Hey, what do you say we trade some of our kids for a day?”
Lord not only loved the idea, but understood why.
“I told Bob I had done this before, when I was a science teacher up in Franklin, N.H.,” Lord said. “Because I used to work in East Los Angeles years ago, I decided to bring five of our kids to California for a week. I coordinated it with my old school, and the kids got paired up with families I used to know. It was all about the kids getting the chance to learn about vastly different cultures, and building bridges.
“At the same time, an old science teacher friend of mind brought five Asian students to Franklin,” he added. “It was a bit of a culture shock for both, but they learned from each other. They discovered they weren’t that different.”

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Members of the Chariho student council, led by advisor Dana Thomas-Hall, pulled into the East Avenue school’s parking lot just before 9 a.m., then escorted to the library by Raiders’ advisor Anne-Marie Dean. From there, they paired up with their previous Shea teammates and toured the school, then took part in a game named “Human Bingo.”
“That’s when they were asked to find someone who had been in a play, or someone who played basketball, or somebody whose last name began with ‘S,’” Lord stated. “It’s a really fun thing, and the kids get to know what they have in common.”
Between 10:12-11:18 a.m., the “Chaboogies” (Chariho’s own fun-loving nickname) attended B Block classes with their hosts to learn how classes and instructors were the same, or dissimilar.
That’s when the lunch bell struck.
“I noticed how different the schools are, and Will is different, too, but we get along fine,” said Toure, an African-American gal with Foley by her side.“He’s a lot like me. He thinks like I do. It’s like we both like school and learning, hanging out with friends and going to dances.”
Offered Foley: “I’ve learned a lot about Shea already, and I’ve never been here before. It’s a lot different. We’re like an all-white school, but there are a lot of nationalities here, and it’s fun to meet new people.”
Toure quickly responded: “He’s a good person, and so am I. He’s not racist, and neither am I. I’ll give him my phone number to call me, just to talk about whatever.”
DosSantos admittedly enjoyed the time she spent with Paquin, and vice-versa.
“There’s a lot more diversity here (at Shea),” Paquin said. “At our school, everyone’s the same, it seems the same thing happens every day. This place is, like, ‘Wow!’ It’s nice to be somewhere else, and see how others live. During our tour at Chariho, I led the way, and, Vanessa did the same thing here. I found we’re both outgoing people.”
Then there was the tandem of Omoaregba and Schmitz, who seemingly had forged a solid relationship.
“I’ve discovered that Luck was born in Nigeria and likes soccer, and that we have in common, like talking sports and girls,” Schmitz smiled. “We haven’t had any problems. We’ve hit it off … To most people, our school would be considered different because most around have a lot of diversity. We at Chariho don’t.
“This is a fun experience, getting to know so many people with varied backgrounds,” he added.
Omoaregba immediately piped up: “Chariho is a really big school surrounded by a (turf) farm, and that was strange, but I know Matt’s on the varsity football team, and that he’s French and German. Man, he’s cool. With him playing football, I don’t have to say anything else.”

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After the trek to the cafeteria, the entourage strolled to the Shea auditorium, where Dean conducted an interesting exercise.
She divided the students by school, and asked them to create a list noting their most unique experiences at their particular site.
“The goal is to get them to see they have a lot more in common than they think they do,” she said. “Then again, I think they’ve already realized that, despite the difference in race and ethnicity. I think this has been a huge success.These kids seem to get along really well. In fact, when the Chariho kids got off the bus here (Friday) morning, they walked right up to their partners from the previous trip and greeted them, saying, ‘Hey, it’s nice to see you!’
“When I went to Classical, we had the same kind of exchange with Ponaganset, so I’ve seen this before,” she added. “I don’t really remember what we did, but it was eye-opening. The Ponaganset kids thought it was weird to see what it was like in an inner-city school, because of where they grew up, but I think they took a lot from it. I think the Chariho kids feel the same way.”