Carlynton students 'mix it up'

Kelci Bertosh was a little scared, but also excited to sit at a lunch table with a group of peers she rarely talks to at Carlynton Junior Senior High School.

While the conversation started off slow — with basic questions like “Do you play any sports?” or “What’s your favorite subject?” Kelci formed a closer bond with several of her classmates throughout lunch.

They might not be best friends, but now, she says “hi” to them in the hallways, or talks to them when she runs into them in gym class. She has even chatted with them on social media.

“I learned more about people,” said Kelci, 13, an eighth-grader, of the experience.

On Dec. 13, 163 of the school’s roughly 200 seventh- and eighth-graders participated in Carlynton’s first ever “Mix It Up” Day.

The idea for the day came from special education teacher Maggie Wilson, who had participated in a similar event while working at a school in Erie. Mix It Up Day is a nationwide project of Teaching Tolerance, with the goal of promoting acceptance and understanding among students by learning about their classmates.

Teachers at Carlynton were looking for an activity to do with eighth-graders in English after the students finished reading “The Outsiders” by S. E. Hinton.

In the book, “there were two different major friend groups and some of the people in The Outsiders intertwined, even though they were in different friend groups,” said eighth-grader Chikamso Orji, 13. “I guess Mix It Up Day was kind of like that.”

The goal was for students to sit with classmates they never hang out with during lunch in an effort to break down social barriers and cliques.

“So many of our students really embraced this novel. They love the story. But we wanted them to apply it here in their life as a student,” Wilson said.

Wilson and English teacher Tonilyn Jackson presented the idea to the eighth-graders.

The eighth-graders then were responsible for spreading the idea to the seventh-graders. They made posters and made announcements at school.

While some students were excited about the idea, others were hesitant.

For those students, teachers reminded them, “Remember, this is just one lunch period. It’s a small portion of the year,” Wilson said.

Seventh- and eighth-graders at Carlynton choose their lunch tables at the beginning of the nine weeks. They must stay in that seat for the entire term.

Most sit with their friends. But for Mix It Up Day, Wilson and Jackson randomly assigned students to different tables.

They also created table tents to give the students something to talk about if they got stuck.

Jacob Kaltz, 12, a seventh-grader, thought Mix It Up Day was a good idea. But, “as with most people, you get really self conscious, and like, ‘What are they going to think of me?’”

Seth Kerr, 14, an eighth-grader, said it “felt kind of crazy” to randomly sit with people. But he realized that adults have to interact with people they don’t know quite often, so this is preparation for later in life.

Chikamso, who is admittedly rather outgoing, said he wasn’t worried about the day. For him, it was a fun idea.

Walking into the cafeteria and seeing all of his friends at different tables, Jacob said at first he wished he would be sitting with his friends.

But when he found his table, he recognized one of the other students and they all started telling jokes.

Ultimately, he had a good experience.

“I think my self-confidence level got a little boost,” he said. “I feel better about myself that I can open up to new people that I’ve never met.”

While there was awkward silence at first at Seth’s table, students used the table tents as conversation starters.

Through the lunch he learned a lot about his classmates and himself.

“I learned that I have the ability to socialize with people that I don’t really know, that I’m able to talk to more people than just my friend group,” he said.

Chikamso, who talked with his classmates about video games, said he learned that “you can go out of your comfort zone and still be fine and make new friends.”