FROM THE OUTSIDE, SHALOM HIGH SCHOOL ISN'T EXACTLY THE IMAGE OF A MODERN SCHOOL.
BUT INSIDE, IT'S FULL OF STUDENTS FACING VERY MODERN CHALLENGES.
AARON, Shalom student: "My dad's not around."
KENNY, Shalom student: "He got shot in the back of the head."
SIMONE, Shalom student: My mother had me when she was 19 and she raised me by herself."
SHALOM STUDENTS ARE REQUIRED TO WRITE THEIR LIFE STORIES TO GRADUATE.
SIMONE: "When I was 5, I was raped for 7 years. The person who did it to me threatened that he would kill me if I told anyone."
BROOKE VIKE, UW-Whitewater student: "Reading their stories brought tears to my eyes. Some of the things I couldn't believe really happened."
MANY OF THESE UW-WHITEWATER STUDENTS GREW UP JUST HOURS FROM HERE, IN PLACES THAT MIGHT AS WELL HAVE BEEN A WORLD AWAY.
MARK CARROLL, UW-Whitewater student: "I'm from Sharon, Wisconsin… population 1,280."
THE UW-WHITEWATER CALLS THIS THE URBAN EXPERIENCE. A CHANCE FOR SOCIAL WORK MAJORS TO SPEND A DAY TUTORING INNER-CITY STUDENTS.
ALYSSA PESCHKE, UW-Whitewater student: "I had no clue what to expect."
NICK GEHRING, UW-Whitewater student: "He's working on his autobiography."
AARON: "He's helping me revise it and re-edit it."
GWENDOLYN SPENCER, Shalom H.S. Principal: "They don't often get to interact with college students."
BUT THESE COLLEGE STUDENTS ARE LEARNING… AS MUCH AS THEY'RE TEACHING.
TRISHA SCHELK, UW-Whitewater student: "We came here thinking that it was a school for, like juvenile delinquents…"
AND THE COLLEGE STUDENTS WEREN'T THE ONLY ONES WITH PRECONCEPTIONS.
SIMONE: "A lot of kids that came here to Shalom like came from inner city schools. That's all black people and they weren't used to being around somebody white."
MARK CARROLL: "When I was in the math room, a girl called me over and said, "What's up with you white people?" And it kind of threw me back. And I told her that I respect the individual. I do not regard race. I do not."
TO TRAIN SUCCESSFUL SOCIAL WORKERS, PROFESSORS KNOW IT TAKES MORE THAN BOOKS AND CASE STUDIES.
PROFESSOR JIM WINSHIP, Social Work Professor & Chairperson: "Growing up you have these stereotypes but when you meet somebody and you hear their story and it really resonates, then the stereotype doesn't hold as much as it did before, because you know it doesn't apply to everybody."
NICK GEHRING: "I started helping him with his paper and we started talking."
AARON: "We knew more about each other. We learned to communicate."
GWEN SPENCER, Principal: "Every time the UW-Whitewater students come here, there are a number of students who want to follow through and apply to UW-Whitewater."
AARON: "I want to go to school to be a journalist."
KENNY: "What's your goal? Get out of high school, get my diploma and go to veterinary school."
TRISHA: "And you finally get to realize firsthand, people really do go through terrible things but they still can overcome it."
SIMONE: "Yes I am gonna graduate… in June of 2008!"
AMANDA: "I was really surprised."
AND MORE THAN A FEW WERE SURPRISED AT WHAT THEY LEARNED ABOUT THEMSELVES.
SARA: "I had a lot of stereotypes in my mind and it really opened my eyes."
NICK: "There's no way that I'll ever go back to the thinking that these are bad kids and bad people because… they're not."
ALYSSA: "It was just a real person. It's a person."
PROFESSOR WINSHIP: "This was just way beyond my expectations."
IN JUST A FEW HOURS… TWO VERY DIFFERENT WORLDS MOVED A LITTLE CLOSER.
NICK: "There's no way you can't be changed by it."
Music fades out.