TOLEDO, Ohio — Students from Oak Harbor High School joined students at Toledo's Woodward High School Thursday for a chance to connect and share ideas.
"This is a beginning for our kids because we want this to become a long term relationship," said Benton-Carroll- Salem Superintendent Guy Parmigian.
Fifty students went through activities and exercises together exploring what good qualities they want to see in their classmates, teachers and themselves.
"We hear from our employers, we hear from higher education, we hear from the military about how important it is to have our students with problem solving skills, relationship skills and being able to work with people with different perspectives and different backgrounds and so this is our attempt to really bridge two different schools and begin to have those conversations and begin to build those skills with our kids," Parmigian said.
Parmigian started talking to a former Toledo Public Schools principal about wanting to connect students from the large, urban district and his smaller, rural schools. He said the idea came up gain at this year's Oak Harbor- Woodward football game.
"Its just a great chance for us, two communities, rural urban, country, city and really teenagers with differences but more likes and opportunities for them to get into the same room and share that," Woodward Principal Jack Renz said.
Students in ninth through 12th grade from both schools got to participate.
"They (students) usually have the same passions, they're just never brought into one room to talk about those passions," Renz said.
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