Latest / Pittsburgh Sunday Morning / TOPIC: Dr. Dara Ware Allen & Students - City High: Where Education Meets the Real World

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TOPIC: Dr. Dara Ware Allen & Students - City High: Where Education Meets the Real World · Pittsburgh Sunday Morning

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: And welcome in. This is a public affairs program shedding
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: the light on the interest, issues, and concerns of the
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: greater Pittsburgh area. Good morning. My name is Johnny Hartwell.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: In studio, one of my favorite guests, Dr. Dara Ware-Allen,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: CEO and principal of City Charter High School. Dara, it
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: is so good to see you.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: How are you?
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: Johnny, thanks for having me back. It's always a pleasure
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: to be here.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: You brought guests for me.
• 0:27
  Speaker 4: You brought people.
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: I did. We have some of our students with us,
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: and they're the best part of City High.
• 0:34
  Speaker 5: All right.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Let's say hi to Felix Dreyer. Good morning.
• 0:37
  Speaker 6: Good morning.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Kalina Richardson. Good morning.
• 0:40
  Speaker 6: Good morning.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: And Ella Sabola. How are you?
• 0:43
  Speaker 5: Good.
• 0:43
  Speaker 6: Thank you for having us.
• 0:44
  Speaker 5: All right.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: This is exciting because we're going to talk to you.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: We're also going to talk to the students to get
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: their perspective. Does that make you nervous at all?
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: No.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: What they're going to say?
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: No, they really are. Like when I said, they're the
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: best part of City High.
• 0:58
  Speaker 4: It's why I continue to do this work is getting
• 1:00
  Speaker 4: the chance to get to interact with them and seeing
• 1:04
  Speaker 4: how their futures unfold. And so, really, they tell the
• 1:07
  Speaker 4: best story when we hear from them.
• 1:08
  Speaker 6: Okay.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Now, I know in a couple of weeks, in fact,
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: less than two weeks, you have an open house. So,
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: tell us everything we need to know about that.
• 1:16
  Speaker 5: Yes.
• 1:17
  Speaker 4: We have an open house on Saturday, October 24th. It's
• 1:20
  Speaker 4: a little bit later in the month than we typically
• 1:23
  Speaker 4: have it. And it's going to be on the Saturday,
• 1:26
  Speaker 4: like I said, the 24th from 10 a.m.
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: Until noon.
• 1:29
  Speaker 4: And it's open to folks that are thinking about coming
• 1:32
  Speaker 4: to City High, want to explore. There'll be an opportunity
• 1:35
  Speaker 4: to talk to teachers and also a chance to get
• 1:37
  Speaker 4: to talk to some of our students, including Felix, Kalina,
• 1:41
  Speaker 4: and Ella.
• 1:42
  Speaker 5: All right.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: So, you're looking for specific kind of grades, though. You're
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: not talking, you're not elementary grades. This is This is
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: going into, what, 8th or 9th grade?
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: Thanks, Johnny.
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: That would make sense to be able to clarify that. So, right,
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: this would be for current 8th graders that are interested
• 1:59
  Speaker 4: in going to 9th grade in the fall. And then
• 2:01
  Speaker 4: also we accept transferring 9th graders who would be in
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: 10th grade in the fall.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: Now, there is so much to explain about City High.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: It's okay to call it City High because that's what
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: you guys call it, right?
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 2:14
  Speaker 6: Okay.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: Because you're just not your average high school, are you?
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: We are not.
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: We're fortunate that we had visionaries that pioneered City High.
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: They did a lot of research nationwide, thinking about the
• 2:28
  Speaker 4: best elements of high school and reimagined what the high
• 2:30
  Speaker 4: school experience could look like. And so what's special about
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: our school, in addition to our students and also our teachers,
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: is how our school is scheduled and structured.
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: So we're a year-round school. It means that we do
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: get breaks, but they are.
• 2:45
  Speaker 4: Not your traditional kind of breaks, you know, like you
• 2:47
  Speaker 4: have the summer off. It's roughly three months on, one
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: month off, a trimester schedule. We also have a four-day
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: school week. We are trying to model what work looks
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: like in different kinds of work environments outside of school.
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: the high school experience, and so four-day school week. And
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: then we have optional activities the first Monday of every month.
• 3:10
  Speaker 4: And what also is unique about our school, there are
• 3:12
  Speaker 4: lots of things, but trying to hit the highlights, is
• 3:13
  Speaker 4: that our school loops. So what that means is that
• 3:16
  Speaker 4: our teachers and I'm a grade level principal that starts
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: with students in ninth grade. They stay with them all
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: four years. That is that is our goal. And it's
• 3:25
  Speaker 4: really like our secret sauce, you know, kind of building
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: relationships and learning how to leverage learning through the relationships
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: that students and teachers develop together. And then one last
• 3:36
  Speaker 4: thing that I'll mention here. Again, not everything, but something
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: that attracted me to City High before coming here is
• 3:43
  Speaker 4: the fact that City High integrates career development opportunities and
• 3:46
  Speaker 4: exposure experiences. So the students have a sense of what
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: is out there, you know, in the world, what they
• 3:52
  Speaker 4: could do potentially as a career, what they can do
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: even as hobbies.
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: And finding out what they do like and what they don't.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: And that includes an internship, too.
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: Which includes the internship.
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  Speaker 4: And so that's another anchor part of the City High experience,
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: that every student will graduate having an internship with more
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: information about themselves, about the world of work, to really
• 4:13
  Speaker 4: be able to hit the ground once they graduate.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: Okay. Now I want to get the perspective from the students.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: I'm going to start with Ella, since you're closest to
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: the microphone. So you're not from Pittsburgh. Tell me your story.
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so around 2017, 2018, I came to America from Nigeria.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: I was around six years old, and I first moved
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: to New York. I stayed there for, I want to say,
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: a few months to a year, and then we came
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: to Pittsburgh, and I've been at Propel Montour my entire
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: life until my mom told me about City Charter High School,
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: and I absolutely fell in love with that school.
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  Speaker 6: Okay.
• 4:53
  Speaker 5: Okay.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: So compare Nigeria to Pittsburgh. What's the difference?
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: The weather.
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: It's so warm. It's so hot.
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: Yes, it rains, but like Pittsburgh, oh my goodness.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: We have a lot of rain.
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and the cold, it scared me.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: So while you were living in New York, when did
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: you experience your first winter?
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: I want to say because I arrived around, I want
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: to say May.
• 5:23
  Speaker 6: Okay.
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: And so that same year was when I experienced my
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: first winter.
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: I was, like, shocked.
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: Like, knee-high boots and snow that was also up to
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: your knees and, like, all these huge winter coats. Like,
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: you can never see a big winter coat or even
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: huge cardigans in Nigeria.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you got to think about clothing options, don't you? Okay,
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: so you're a sophomore. So what attracted you to City High?
• 5:50
  Speaker 5: So I.
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: I'm very ambitious and I always think about my future
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: and the school I was currently at. I thought that
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: I didn't have enough resources that I thought that I
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: needed to get to where I wanted to be. And
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: my mom found City Charter High School and then I
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: started researching The school and the curriculum, I just fell
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: in love. We get to have those internships and get
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: to meet with other people and do it in romance.
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: It just changed how I saw high school.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: Now, your school in Nigeria and then when you went
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: to New York, was that kind of a traditional school
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: where you had big breaks in the summer and maybe
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: a break in the winter?
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: Yes, we had those breaks.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: What was it like to go in year-round? What kind
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: of adjustment was that?
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: I was, it was a little so-so at first because
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: it was, you know, hard having my friends be out
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: and me still being in school. But I definitely got
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: used to it. My sleep schedule as well, I had
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: to adjust that because I usually sleep a lot during
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: like summer break and I didn't have that.
• 7:02
  Speaker 5: Uh-huh.
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  Speaker 2: I was just doing schoolwork, but I got used to it. Okay.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: All right, let's go with Kalina. Now, you're a senior, correct?
• 7:10
  Speaker 6: Yes.
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  Speaker 1: Okay. And when did you start at City High? Did
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: you start as a?
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: I started as a freshman.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: You did?
• 7:19
  Speaker 6: Okay.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: And what attracted you to this school?
• 7:22
  Speaker 5: Coming out of middle school, I really wanted to be
• 7:24
  Speaker 5: challenged in a way that I hadn't been challenged before.
• 7:26
  Speaker 5: And I felt that at City High with the internship
• 7:29
  Speaker 5: program and the looping I would have, more of an
• 7:32
  Speaker 5: opportunity to foster deeper connections with teachers and peers, and
• 7:35
  Speaker 5: I would be able to do more extracurricular activities.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 7:39
  Speaker 6: Dr.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: Allen talked about looping. What was your experience? That's something
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: that people aren't used to. So you have the same
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: teacher the whole way through your high school career.
• 7:52
  Speaker 5: For me, that was a big change because even in
• 7:54
  Speaker 5: my middle school, a lot of staff didn't stick. We
• 7:56
  Speaker 5: had maybe two teachers in that entire junior high that
• 7:59
  Speaker 5: I had for the entire like middle school experience and
• 8:03
  Speaker 5: coming to city high almost all of our teachers stayed
• 8:05
  Speaker 5: so i've really been able to help have work with
• 8:08
  Speaker 5: teachers that know my learning style work that know how
• 8:11
  Speaker 5: i get work done that know how i study and
• 8:13
  Speaker 5: they've really been able to present me with more opportunities
• 8:16
  Speaker 5: like poetry out loud different electives so i've been able
• 8:19
  Speaker 5: to get even more opportunities more connections to other extracurriculars
• 8:23
  Speaker 5: outside of city high.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: Now, you're interested in art. You want to be an
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: art teacher?
• 8:26
  Speaker 5: Yes.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: You're interested in art. What do you specialize in?
• 8:30
  Speaker 5: I do visual arts, like painting.
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  Speaker 2: All right.
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: And what kind of experience does City High give to
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: your aspirations?
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  Speaker 5: Our art room is always open, so I'm able to
• 8:42
  Speaker 5: go there and work on art whenever I'm not busy.
• 8:45
  Speaker 5: I really like having an art teacher that I can
• 8:47
  Speaker 5: talk about different mediums with that's willing to give me tips.
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  Speaker 5: So I think that's been very beneficial to my experience
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  Speaker 5: as an artist, having someone that knows what they're doing,
• 8:56
  Speaker 5: knows and has been doing it for a long time.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: Now, did you have any friends or family that had
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: gone to City High before you, or is that something
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: that you found on your own?
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  Speaker 5: It was completely like I had never heard of it.
• 9:09
  Speaker 5: I had never heard of the downtown schools. And I
• 9:11
  Speaker 5: was really intrigued to hear about an all-year-round school that
• 9:15
  Speaker 5: was in the heart of Pittsburgh. So I was really
• 9:18
  Speaker 5: new to it. I didn't know anyone that had went
• 9:19
  Speaker 5: there before. So it was like a brand new world
• 9:22
  Speaker 5: to me.
• 9:23
  Speaker 6: All right.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: Now, Felix, your turn. Okay. Now, you're not originally from Pittsburgh.
• 9:29
  Speaker 6: No, I'm not originally from Pittsburgh.
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: Not from Nigeria.
• 9:32
  Speaker 6: No, no. Not that far away. I'm originally from Atlanta,
• 9:37
  Speaker 6: but I moved when I was very young to Cocoa Beach,
• 9:39
  Speaker 6: Florida over by the Cape Canaveral and the Space Center.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: So you didn't see a lot of winter either.
• 9:44
  Speaker 6: I didn't see a lot of winter at all, yeah.
• 9:47
  Speaker 6: My first winter, we came up to, in Pittsburgh, in like,
• 9:50
  Speaker 6: I want to say the end of fall, late October.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: Hello!
• 9:53
  Speaker 6: And then, yeah, like three days, four days later, it
• 9:57
  Speaker 6: was just starting, the cold front came in. and then
• 10:01
  Speaker 6: my first snowball fight was like the next week after that.
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: That's funny. That's funny. Did you make a snowman when
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: you first came out?
• 10:06
  Speaker 6: Yes, absolutely. You have to.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: It's like the rule. All right, so what attracted you
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: to City High?
• 10:12
  Speaker 6: Well, I originally went to another charter school called Providence
• 10:16
  Speaker 6: Charter School for my middle school and elementary days. And
• 10:20
  Speaker 6: there was a City High student ambassador who came in
• 10:23
  Speaker 6: in the cafeteria and talked about City High. And it
• 10:26
  Speaker 6: really broadened my view. I was like, this is very interesting.
• 10:30
  Speaker 6: The school looks like exactly what I want. It kind
• 10:32
  Speaker 6: of fits the same bill where you're always connected with
• 10:35
  Speaker 6: your teachers. You can talk with them. You can get
• 10:37
  Speaker 6: things done. And the student to faculty ratio was just
• 10:42
  Speaker 6: like in the sweet spot for me. So I'm like, yeah,
• 10:45
  Speaker 6: I want to go to that school. Okay. Okay.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: And you're interested in communications. Is this the first time
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: you've been on radio?
• 10:50
  Speaker 6: Actually, no. I go to SLB Radio, which is a
• 10:55
  Speaker 6: youth-led radio program in the Children's Museum. And I do
• 10:58
  Speaker 6: a lot of radio stuff there.
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: Oh, I didn't know I was dealing with a pro.
• 11:03
  Speaker 6: I do enjoy being on air. It's a lot of fun.
• 11:06
  Speaker 4: That's cool.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: And so, you know, we talked to Dara, Dr. Allen, about,
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: you know... Kind of focusing on career choices, had you
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: formulated your desire to be part of the media fairly early,
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: or was that something that was developed while you were
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: at City High?
• 11:25
  Speaker 6: I think it was developed while I was at City
• 11:27
  Speaker 6: High because we have this really great digital media program
• 11:30
  Speaker 6: where we learn, like, Photoshop and different things like Premiere.
• 11:35
  Speaker 6: And it's really– that really broadened my thinking. my thoughts
• 11:39
  Speaker 6: on aspects of studio art and making things online using multimedia.
• 11:44
  Speaker 6: And then also, we have this career fair every other
• 11:47
  Speaker 6: year where you get to meet with a bunch of
• 11:50
  Speaker 6: after-school programs. And that's where I met SLB Radio and
• 11:53
  Speaker 6: got into that.
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: That's awesome. That's awesome. All right, Dr. Allen, back to you.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: How proud are you of these three individuals?
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: I love them.
• 12:04
  Speaker 4: And it's why I come to work every day excited
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: about what the new day is going to bring. I
• 12:10
  Speaker 4: learn so much from our students. I mean, our goal
• 12:13
  Speaker 4: is that we are teaching them, but they're also teaching us.
• 12:17
  Speaker 4: And the looping model helps with that. I mean, it
• 12:19
  Speaker 4: really is a relationship that starts when they begin, and
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: then it just develops. And we forge relationships that last
• 12:30
  Speaker 4: You know, beyond their time at City High, I always
• 12:32
  Speaker 4: look for when our alumni come back to visit, tell
• 12:34
  Speaker 4: us what they're up to, and give us some inspiration
• 12:36
  Speaker 4: to keep doing what we're doing.
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: So I'm super proud.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: You know, I interview individuals every single week. I wish
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: more individuals were more like them. They were not hesitant
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: to talk at all on the radio because sometimes that
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: can be intimidating.
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: Exactly. They're doing better than I did my first time around.
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: They're rock stars.
• 12:56
  Speaker 5: All right.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: I don't want to get too far away from also
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: mentioning that you have an open house coming up in
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: a couple of weeks. So for those who missed your
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: message at the top of the show, tell us everything
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: we need to know.
• 13:06
  Speaker 4: Yes, we hope you'll come check us out on Saturday,
• 13:08
  Speaker 4: October 24th. Our open house is from 10 until noon.
• 13:13
  Speaker 4: You can register on our website, cityhigh.org. We also will
• 13:18
  Speaker 4: accept if you just stop in, you know, if you
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: haven't had a chance to register. But it will be
• 13:23
  Speaker 4: an opportunity to be able to see the school up close.
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: talk to students, talk to teachers. And we think that's
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: a unique part of our experience, um, to where you
• 13:32
  Speaker 4: have that opportunity to, to actually ask your questions and hear,
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: you know, from the folks that help run the school
• 13:37
  Speaker 4: and experience the school.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: And if you're looking for more information, the website is
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: city high.org.
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: That's right.
• 13:43
  Speaker 6: Okay.
• 13:43
  Speaker 5: All right.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: I'm not done with you three. Let's go back to Felix. Um,
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: we kind of mentioned the differences, uh, with city high
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: compared to maybe, uh, other, um, like public school. Um,
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: What was it like for you? What was the biggest
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: transition for you?
• 13:59
  Speaker 6: I think the biggest transition would definitely be the four-day weeks.
• 14:03
  Speaker 6: I was usually doing... The four-day weeks, yeah. We don't
• 14:07
  Speaker 6: have Mondays, so we have Tuesday through Friday. And that
• 14:11
  Speaker 6: is really nice, especially if you have any work or
• 14:14
  Speaker 6: if you have anything you need to do on that Monday.
• 14:17
  Speaker 6: You can get a lot of things done. That was
• 14:19
  Speaker 6: the biggest transition for me because having those four-day weeks
• 14:23
  Speaker 6: was like, It was eye-opening. I really enjoy not being
• 14:28
  Speaker 6: like the Sunday blues. It's going to be Monday tomorrow.
• 14:31
  Speaker 6: I call them the Tuesday blues. But it's really nice
• 14:36
  Speaker 6: having those three-day weekends. I feel like it's a little
• 14:39
  Speaker 6: vacation every time.
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: As an adult, believe me, we like three-day weekends, too. Kalina,
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: same question to you. What was the biggest surprise?
• 14:50
  Speaker 5: I absolutely agree with Felix the four day week, but
• 14:52
  Speaker 5: for me being able to go to school year round,
• 14:54
  Speaker 5: it really kept me busy and productive. Um, Ella mentioned
• 14:58
  Speaker 5: earlier that like the sleep schedule gets fixed. So I
• 15:00
  Speaker 5: think you really learn how to consistently manage your time.
• 15:03
  Speaker 5: Like you would have to in college or in a
• 15:05
  Speaker 5: post-secondary job. So I think that has really prepared me
• 15:08
  Speaker 5: for other extracurriculars, even as I move into things outside
• 15:11
  Speaker 5: of city high.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: And, um, kind of focused on, you know, a career
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: after school, um, being that you want to pursue something
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: in art, what are some of your aspirations for this school?
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: Because you have an internship. Have you thought about, or
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: how does that work?
• 15:31
  Speaker 5: I want to have the same impact on students that
• 15:33
  Speaker 5: some of my teachers have had on me at City High.
• 15:35
  Speaker 5: I think that there really is a strong opportunity to
• 15:39
  Speaker 5: stay with the same people for the four years. That
• 15:40
  Speaker 5: lets you really get to know them, and you can
• 15:43
  Speaker 5: have those personal conversations with them, and I want to
• 15:45
  Speaker 5: be able to do that same thing I would love
• 15:47
  Speaker 5: to return to City High after I graduate. I would
• 15:50
  Speaker 5: love to work in the art department, even because we
• 15:53
  Speaker 5: stay with our same four teachers, but our teachers are
• 15:55
  Speaker 5: able to work with different grade levels as well. So
• 15:57
  Speaker 5: I get to help with different kids and they can
• 15:59
  Speaker 5: keep returning. So I think that would be a really
• 16:02
  Speaker 5: lovely goal for me to come back to City High.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: All right, let's go back to Ella. Now, you're only
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: a sophomore, but you have some aspirations. What do you
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: want to do after your high school career?
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: I would just love to go to medical school. I've
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: loved children. I just love working with kids. And being
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: at City High has really taught me a lot when
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: it comes to working with children and teenagers. I love
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: the way our teachers communicate with us. They always listen.
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: And Dr. Allen, she knows everybody by name. And That's
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: how I want to be whenever it comes to working
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: with children in medicine.
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: Hold on, hold on, hold on. You mentioned, you know
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: everybody's name.
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: I work on it. And really, there are unique elements.
• 16:56
  Speaker 4: Even though I don't have as much time with students
• 17:00
  Speaker 4: as their teachers do, I enjoy getting to know a
• 17:04
  Speaker 4: little thing about students that helps me remember who they are.
• 17:08
  Speaker 4: And I feel grateful when I see them coming in
• 17:11
  Speaker 4: the door, when I see them throughout the day and
• 17:14
  Speaker 4: in the building. And when they're leaving, you know, and
• 17:16
  Speaker 4: hoping that they're going to have a good evening and
• 17:18
  Speaker 4: they're going to come back, you know, the next day. And,
• 17:21
  Speaker 4: you know, like we're just continuing to feel like that
• 17:24
  Speaker 4: level of connection. So I do work at, you know,
• 17:26
  Speaker 4: trying to find a little bit of something about every
• 17:29
  Speaker 4: student to remember who they are.
• 17:31
  Speaker 6: All right.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: This is a question for the collective. Does it become
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: kind of almost a family?
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
• 17:39
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 17:40
  Speaker 5: I definitely do think that there is a community at
• 17:43
  Speaker 5: City High that Um, especially Dr. Island. She stands up
• 17:46
  Speaker 5: front of the school every morning and greets everyone. So
• 17:48
  Speaker 5: I feel like that's a really good, that sums up
• 17:50
  Speaker 5: city high perfectly. You know, everyone you're able to talk
• 17:53
  Speaker 5: to everyone.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: I think embarrassing.
• 17:57
  Speaker 5: Felix and I, especially since we've been here so long,
• 18:00
  Speaker 5: we know everyone on our floor and our grade level
• 18:02
  Speaker 5: by name, just like Dr. Island knows a lot of
• 18:04
  Speaker 5: the students by name. We're able to identify and connect
• 18:06
  Speaker 5: with one another too.
• 18:09
  Speaker 6: I especially think it's a very community oriented, uh, when, um,
• 18:13
  Speaker 6: Right now, this year, I'm doing a dual enrollment at
• 18:16
  Speaker 6: Point Park, so I go out of the school to
• 18:19
  Speaker 6: another school, and then I come back, and I have
• 18:21
  Speaker 6: the most wonderful conversations with our security guard. We wait
• 18:24
  Speaker 6: in the door, we get in, and me and Mr.
• 18:26
  Speaker 6: Collins just chat about life, and then I head back
• 18:29
  Speaker 6: up to class.
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: All right, so this is a great opportunity for somebody
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: who's listening who may be interested in attending City High
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: to kind of get a perspective of what the school
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: is may provide. And of course, a great way to
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: connect with the school is the open house, which is
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: coming up in a couple of weeks. For those who
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: are maybe interested or curious about it, I highly encourage
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: you go to the website cityhigh.org, get in contact with
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: the school, schedule a time for you to come in
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: for part of the open house. But what would they
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: experience at the open house?
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: Great question.
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: And what is unique about coming to the open house
• 19:14
  Speaker 4: is they do get to walk through the entire building.
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: You know, we give them a map.
• 19:18
  Speaker 4: They have a city high student ambassador that is, you know,
• 19:22
  Speaker 4: basically helping them navigate the building where there are one-on-one
• 19:26
  Speaker 4: or small group conversations. That really can be customized. And
• 19:30
  Speaker 4: our student ambassadors really do speak from their experience. You know,
• 19:34
  Speaker 4: they are experts, you know, on City High and are
• 19:38
  Speaker 4: able to provide that perspective to incoming folks that are
• 19:42
  Speaker 4: looking to visit. And then also once they get up
• 19:45
  Speaker 4: on the floor, we have three levels, you know, above
• 19:48
  Speaker 4: the first floor. And so they're both laid out very similarly.
• 19:52
  Speaker 4: And so folks are on the second floor. They can
• 19:54
  Speaker 4: see like what the layout, you know, of how classrooms
• 19:57
  Speaker 4: are for the various grade levels. And be able to
• 20:00
  Speaker 4: talk to teachers like teacher representatives for all of the
• 20:03
  Speaker 4: different content areas that day um The open house also
• 20:07
  Speaker 4: we end with a little treat, you know, we want
• 20:09
  Speaker 4: to thank people for coming So that sounds like a
• 20:11
  Speaker 4: little simple thing, but I think it's also um A
• 20:15
  Speaker 4: part of what the experience is like when we're there,
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: you know, they get fresh baked cinnamon rolls from our
• 20:20
  Speaker 4: chef as well as cookies and um Food is a
• 20:24
  Speaker 4: very important part at City High, too, to where we
• 20:26
  Speaker 4: have a chef and a sous chef and a cafeteria team. Students,
• 20:30
  Speaker 4: you know, have trays like they would, you know, if
• 20:33
  Speaker 4: they were going to, you know, a college, not disposable
• 20:35
  Speaker 4: little packages or paper plates, you know, of letting them
• 20:39
  Speaker 4: know that we see, you know, their experience as like
• 20:43
  Speaker 4: a full experience or you're doing school, just like we're
• 20:46
  Speaker 4: looking forward to have like a sustaining lunch. We want
• 20:48
  Speaker 4: our students to also feel that as well. So those
• 20:51
  Speaker 4: are just like little things, you know, that I think
• 20:54
  Speaker 4: speak to what the school environment is like. And then
• 20:57
  Speaker 4: if someone's not able to come to the open house,
• 20:58
  Speaker 4: although we hope that most people will be able to
• 21:01
  Speaker 4: prioritize it, you know, since it's in a couple of weeks,
• 21:03
  Speaker 4: we also do individual tours, usually on Wednesdays. And for
• 21:08
  Speaker 4: some reason, if that doesn't work, you know, we can
• 21:09
  Speaker 4: make arrangements. But what's different about the tour is that
• 21:13
  Speaker 4: they will actually see class in session. They won't have
• 21:16
  Speaker 4: the opportunity to talk to teachers, but they will be
• 21:18
  Speaker 4: actually able to see what class looks like. So I
• 21:22
  Speaker 4: actually recommend, you know, if people are able to, to
• 21:24
  Speaker 4: come to the open house and then also schedule a
• 21:27
  Speaker 4: tour because then they'll get like the fullest experience.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: Dr. Allen is the principal and CEO, and she brought
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: in some students. So I've got more questions for you.
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: Let's start with Ella on this one. Got a question
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: for you. For people who, friends or family, who aren't
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: exactly sure what exactly City High is all about, how
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: do you explain your experience to them?
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: I've been through this a lot with students from my
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: other school.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: Who have come to City High.
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: Because it's different.
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: It's different. Yeah.
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: I first, well, I talk to them about the full experience.
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: you know, city high, what it is, how you work
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: with other people, the curriculum. And then I go into,
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: you know, pros and cons as in like things that
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: are different with city high that others might not be
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: so comfortable with, such as the dress code. We have
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: a business casual dress code. So we wear, you know,
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: things like, you know, button down shirts, business pants, loafers, flats,
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: things like that. And to turn off for a lot
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: of people, who want to come to the school, but
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: I try my best to explain that it's not as
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: bad as you think it is.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: I have three boys. They don't dress like you. You
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: guys look fabulous. Killian, I got a question for you.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: What are you better at now than before City High?
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: Maybe not academically, but something, you know, maybe it's spiritually
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: or educationally or just from a personal standpoint.
• 23:04
  Speaker 5: I have definitely improved in my communication skills being around
• 23:08
  Speaker 5: the same people all the time You learn how to
• 23:11
  Speaker 5: interact with a wide variety of people since city high
• 23:14
  Speaker 5: is a charter It's downtown people come from all over
• 23:17
  Speaker 5: people come from different experiences different neighborhoods And just like
• 23:20
  Speaker 5: you will have to in university or college or in
• 23:23
  Speaker 5: any real post-secondary option You have to interact with people
• 23:26
  Speaker 5: you have to learn how to Be sociable be communicative
• 23:30
  Speaker 5: and i've really learned how to do so at city
• 23:32
  Speaker 5: high even when um conflicts appear, you have to learn
• 23:36
  Speaker 5: how to resolve those in professional manners. And that is
• 23:39
  Speaker 5: something I feel like I've nearly like perfected at City High.
• 23:42
  Speaker 5: I've had the opportunity to practice with that a lot.
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: All right, Felix, your turn.
• 23:47
  Speaker 6: Okay.
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: So you're talking to an eighth grader, somebody who's going
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: to move and is considering City High. What do you say?
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: Forget about the brochure and the talking points. From your perspective,
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: why do you think they ought to consider going to
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: City High?
• 24:03
  Speaker 6: I think City High is a really great option because
• 24:07
  Speaker 6: my main, like, I gravitate to this, is you get
• 24:10
  Speaker 6: to know everybody. Everybody knows you. You know everybody back.
• 24:13
  Speaker 6: If you're a little bit shy, you'll kind of work
• 24:16
  Speaker 6: out your shyness. You know everybody in the floor. Everybody
• 24:19
  Speaker 6: knows you. So if you're nervous that in high school.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: And they're all shaking their heads. Yes, you get to
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: know everybody.
• 24:24
  Speaker 6: If you're nervous in middle school that you're leaving all
• 24:26
  Speaker 6: your friends, you're going to another high school, you won't
• 24:28
  Speaker 6: see them, City High, you will know everybody, and everybody
• 24:32
  Speaker 6: will know you. And it's just like one big happy family.
• 24:36
  Speaker 6: I really want to stress that high school can be scary,
• 24:40
  Speaker 6: but getting to know everybody makes it a lot easier.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: All right, we only have a couple of minutes left.
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: So let's kind of talk about the open house again
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: to remind people if somebody's interested. But then we're going
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: to talk about your students behind their backs. Is that okay?
• 24:57
  Speaker 6: Okay, go ahead.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: Tell us everything we need to know about the open houses.
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: All right, I have to first say, I'm so glad
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: they chose us.
• 25:03
  Speaker 4: Our school is better when we have, yes, students from
• 25:07
  Speaker 4: lots of different backgrounds coming together, kind of like how
• 25:10
  Speaker 4: Kalina said. And all of the points around, you know,
• 25:13
  Speaker 4: how we become, you know, a community and how some
• 25:15
  Speaker 4: of the quirkiness, you know, that Ella talked about as well.
• 25:20
  Speaker 4: You learn it and it helps you navigate life, you know,
• 25:24
  Speaker 4: not just at school, but then also in helping to
• 25:26
  Speaker 4: prepare you beyond that. So open house, please come check
• 25:29
  Speaker 4: us out October 24th, Saturday, noon to, excuse me, 10 a.m.
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: To noon.
• 25:36
  Speaker 4: And also, as you had mentioned, to clarify like who
• 25:40
  Speaker 4: we're targeting, primarily we're looking at those who are in
• 25:44
  Speaker 4: eighth grade or ninth grade, eighth graders that will become
• 25:47
  Speaker 4: ninth graders next year or ninth graders who will be
• 25:52
  Speaker 4: 10th graders next year.
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: And or who want to transfer, um, in January.
• 25:56
  Speaker 4: We will take current ninth graders who want to transfer
• 25:59
  Speaker 4: and also current 10th graders who want to transfer in
• 26:02
  Speaker 4: January as well.
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: Okay. So we talked a little bit about the differences.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: We talked about the four day, uh, week as opposed
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: to five days. Uh, you go year round. We talked about, uh,
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: kind of a stress of, um, preparing these students for after,
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: after their high school career. Um, Why is that? And
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: why do you think that's an advantage for City High
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: and your students?
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I am fortunate.
• 26:30
  Speaker 4: Like when I started, when I talked about really the
• 26:34
  Speaker 4: visionary work of our founders. They did a lot of
• 26:37
  Speaker 4: research into really developing the model of City High. And
• 26:43
  Speaker 4: a lot of those aspects of our school really have
• 26:47
  Speaker 4: been found to be true over many years. Sure, there
• 26:51
  Speaker 4: are some things, you know, that are different, but like
• 26:53
  Speaker 4: the base formula of the importance of relationships, of helping
• 26:57
  Speaker 4: students learn. which was mentioned earlier, I think Kalina said it,
• 27:01
  Speaker 4: of you getting to learn your teachers, the teachers getting
• 27:05
  Speaker 4: to learn.
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: Your learning style. And that just strengthens over time.
• 27:10
  Speaker 4: And the fact that we're going to school all year round,
• 27:14
  Speaker 4: the break is enough time to, you know, renew, refresh,
• 27:17
  Speaker 4: but not so much that you're forgetting and restarting. And
• 27:21
  Speaker 4: so I feel like we gain a little bit more
• 27:22
  Speaker 4: each time in terms of like, speeding up what can
• 27:26
  Speaker 4: be learned and how quickly you can jump in and
• 27:29
  Speaker 4: start off, you know, with your curriculum when you've been
• 27:32
  Speaker 4: working over a period of time and you have shorter
• 27:34
  Speaker 4: breaks and the relationships really start to take root.
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: What is your graduation rate?
• 27:39
  Speaker 4: It is 96 percent, and that's across demographic groups, you know, whether,
• 27:43
  Speaker 4: you know, across different racial groups, ability level, you know,
• 27:48
  Speaker 4: in terms of whether a student has an An individualized
• 27:51
  Speaker 4: education plan, class, across demographic groups, we have an average
• 27:56
  Speaker 4: rate of 96%.
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: That's amazing.
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: Now, how's that compared to maybe your average public school?
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: Average public school can vary.
• 28:05
  Speaker 4: And I believe Pittsburgh is in the range of like
• 28:09
  Speaker 4: the high 80s to 90%.
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: And it obviously can fluctuate.
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: But it's not 96%. That's pretty good.
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: It is not. It is not.
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: Tell me what you're most proud of.
• 28:21
  Speaker 4: It is our students. And the fact that they choose
• 28:27
  Speaker 4: to to come to school. Because in high school, really,
• 28:30
  Speaker 4: I mean, that's why truancy is an issue. Students can
• 28:33
  Speaker 4: make choices about, you know, whether they're going to be
• 28:35
  Speaker 4: serious about their education and or even if they don't
• 28:38
  Speaker 4: know what they're going to do, like putting one foot
• 28:40
  Speaker 4: in front of the other to keep pursuing. And the
• 28:43
  Speaker 4: other part, I will say, which makes our community are
• 28:46
  Speaker 4: the staff. We have educators that are amazing. They choose
• 28:51
  Speaker 4: to come to work at City High and together we
• 28:53
  Speaker 4: really form a community that cares about each other.
• 28:56
  Speaker 3: And that's committed to student learning.
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: Felix, Kalina, Ella, thank you. You did a fabulous job.
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for coming in.
• 29:03
  Speaker 6: Thank you for having us. Thank you very much.
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: And Dr. Dara Allen, thank you so much. It's always
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: good to see you. Thank you, and good luck with
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: your open house.
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: Thank you so much for having us.
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: Once again, if you want more information, cityhigh.org is the website.
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: As always, if you have any comments, a concern, or
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: an idea for our future program, please email us from
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: this radio station's website. I'm Johnny Hartwell. Thank you so
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: much for listening.
• 29:47
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• 29:51
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• 29:54
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