Girls from two very different schools on opposite sides of Chattanooga sat around tables Thursday afternoon eating ham sandwiches and chatting.
Students from a class at Girls Preparatory School were visiting Brainerd High School for the afternoon, touring the school and spending time getting to know some of the students.
Charles Mitchell, an assistant principal at Brainerd, said the relationships being built through this student partnership are crucial to the city’s future, as students from a predominately poor school and an elite private school are learning to interact.
“When y’all go out into the community it’s all about perception,” Mitchell told the students. “Y’all have the power to make a change reach across racial and socioeconomic lines.”
This was not the first time students from the two schools spent time together, as a group of Brainerd students previously visited GPS and students from both schools traveled to Nashville together last month to meet the governor.