From Reading to West Philadelphia

To start off with, I went to a high school in the suburbs of Reading, Pennsylvania, while I serve at Overbrook High School in West Philadelphia. So the biggest difference is simply location. My high school was in a small town, and students from the surrounding three towns went there. There are about 1000 students at my high school (also known as Conrad Weiser) while Overbrook has almost 2000. The school building itself at Conrad Weiser was relatively new, as it was built around 2001. Overbrook High School’s building has been around since 1924, which is a very long time. But there are more differences than just a few statistics.

My high school was a predominately white high school, with about one hundred and fifty students of other ethnicities. At Overbrook, ninety-nine percent of the students are African-American. Also there were no uniforms at my high school, whereas Overbrook students must wear either a black or white polo or black or khaki pants. Also Conrad Weiser had three guidance counselors for 1,000 students, while Overbrook has three from 2,000. However, Overbrook also has a Success Center, which has five people who are there to help with college and career planning, which is really helpful for the students. Plus, the attitude at Overbrook is just different from my high school. It was a big shock when we first started serving in our schools, but now I am getting acclimated to it, which helps me be a better corps member.

Meg, 19, corps member, Villa Team at Overbrook High School