School is almost out for summer! For some students, that means camp. For others, it means time to get a job. For the three high school sophomores you’re about to meet, it means a break - not just from school, but from riding the bus.
Every day, the girls leave their homes in the struggling Detroit neighborhood of Brightmoor and hop on two city buses and one yellow bus to get to New Tech High School in Dearborn Heights. Their names are Shaqueria (Shay) Harris-Bay, Navia Daniel and Tanesha George, and they captured their morning trip in an audio diary for our State of Opportunity project.
Their day starts at 4:30 a.m., and then return home some 13 hours later. They take a total of six buses each day all in the hopes of getting a better education than they would have if they stayed close to home.
The three high school sophomores live on the west side of Detroit in a neighborhood called Brightmoor. For our State of Opportunity special on race, they shared with us what it's like to grow up in their neighborhood, an area where drugs and gangs are rampant and opportunities are hard to come by.
