 Thank you for agreeing to be interviewed as part of recognizing the Odyssey's 100th birthday year. Cindy Lowe and Jay Chee came to the Odyssey as part of the MECCO program. MECCO stands for Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity. Arlington was one of the first six districts to welcome MECCO students in 1966, 55 years ago. The MECCO website says, since its founding during the peak of the civil rights movement, the MECCO program has enrolled 10,000 of Boston students of color in predominantly white schools districts, creating the opportunity for students in those districts to experience the advantages of learning and working in a racially and ethnically diverse setting. Over the last century, MECCO has reached tens of thousands of students supporting 3,100 families annually and 31 participating suburban school districts and 190 public schools, with graduating rates and college attainment far above state averages, but MECCO's true power goes beyond academics. MECCO creates environments where students, parents, and teachers of different backgrounds can appreciate diversity. By encombing down through shared experiences, build lifelong interracial friendships and strive toward the mutual goal of preparing young people to become global citizens. The three of us who will be interviewing Ms. Lowe and Ms. Cheek are also MECCO students here at the Audison. We'd like to introduce ourselves. I'm Mikayla, and I'm in the eighth grade this year in the fire learning community. I live in Boston, Massachusetts, and the elementary school I went to was I went to the government department first through third grade, and then for fourth and fifth grade, I went to the Joseph Lee School for advanced work classes, and then I came to MECCO in the sixth grade, so I started off at Gibbs. My name's Amelia. I'm in eighth grade, and I'm in the earth learning community. I live in Boston, Massachusetts. I went to Match Community Day before I came to the Arlington District, and I joined in fourth grade, and I went to Hardy Elementary. My name's Fautmata Savage, and I'm in eighth grade. I'm in the earth, sorry, the water learning community. And I started going to an aunt in 10 when I was in first grade. So for kindergarten, I went to the Conley Elementary School. We'd like to find out more about the both of you. Ms. Lowe, where did you live as a child? So I lived in Boston. All my life. What elementary schools did you attend? So I actually was a MECCO student in Arlington from kindergarten. So I started off at the Locke School, which no longer exists. And I did kindergarten through second grade at the Locke. It was condominiums years ago. I don't know if it's still an apartment building now. I went to Dallin for third through fifth grade. Addison for seventh and eighth and high school Arlington High. When did you join the MECCO program? So kindergarten. Well, you were shared the answer. Where and what time did you leave the MECCO bus? I do not remember. It was a very long time ago, but I know it was super early. And sometimes it was dark outside. When I would go down to meet the bus. How long did it take for you to get to school? So we had some stops, as you ladies know, there's dependent on where you get on the bus. There can be a lot of stops after you or just a few. You could be the last stop. But it took, I mean, I'm assuming it takes about the same time. It takes you guys, I don't know exactly, but whatever time it takes you guys to get from Boston to Arlington. It should be about the same. Oh, where do you live now? Boston. I actually teach for Boston Public Schools and I teach at the Joseph Lee School. OK, Miss Cheek, where did you live with the child and what elementary school did you attend? I lived in Dorchester, part of Boston, and for elementary school, I went to the Pierce. When did you join the macro program? First grade. And what schools did you attend? Pierce, one through five. Audison, six through eight. At the time, it was only till eighth grade. And then I went to Arlington High School for one year. Where and what time did you meet the bus? So I had a crazy childhood where when I lived with my parents, I met the bus, different parts of Roxbury, Quincy Street. Not sure if you're familiar with the gas station on Quincy and Blue. I ended up there, Womback Street off of Humboldt's Ave. I moved around a lot and then up and lower mills, which is a higher part of Dorchester. So I had three different bus stops. Where do you live now? What do you do for work? I currently still live in Roxbury. I have my own place now, finally, and I'm a Boston police officer. OK, now we have some questions about, like, the audison when you were at the school. So these questions are from Miss Lowe first. When you were a student here, what were grades like at the school? So it was only seventh and eighth grade back then, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth. It was only seventh grade, then it was just junior high. OK, and then, like, who was the principal and do you remember any of your assistant principals? I do not remember who the principal was. I do not remember if there was an assistant principal and who that person was. It's a long time ago. OK, was there just code for students when you were here? No, there wasn't. We didn't have any uniforms, so you just dressed in your everyday clothing. OK, was each grade divided into learning communities the way it is now? So I'm not sure. I heard a little bit when you guys were talking about, like, which learning communities you're part of. So I'm not sure exactly what it looks like for you guys, but I know that we had pods, I think they were called, or something like that. But we were so there were, I think. I can't remember how many pods, but you would mix, like, for the specialist teachers, you would still, you know, you would go to the same specialist teachers, but like your homerooms were in certain pods. I think it was, like, by letter, I think it was, like, pod A, pod B, stuff like that. It sounds the same. Foreign languages were you taught and did you take one? So I'm not sure. I know they offered Spanish. I can't remember if they offered French, but I took Latin. OK. What was your favorite subject and your least favorite subject while you were at the audition? So I had a few favorites. Science was always at the top. So biology and chemistry loved science, loved ELA, and then Latin was also my favorite. One of my favorites. And Amelia was my Latin name. We got to choose our names. I think the Spanish students got to choose names as well for Spanish class. But Amelia was my chosen name for Latin. Do you have any memories of, like, favorite teachers that you have or have? I do have a few. So Miss McCarthy was one of our science teachers. She was amazing. Computer classes were not like what they would be for you guys. Like we didn't have folding computers and laptops. They were big old machines all in one thing from Radio Shack. And they didn't we didn't have like pictures and stuff. Like, yeah, when I tell you, it was a long time ago. Yeah, the internet was not really we weren't learning about the internet. Um, but so our computer teacher, who was married to Miss Miss McCarthy, Mr. I can't even remember his name, but I remember exactly what he looks. What he looked like. Neil, Neil, Mr. Neil, thank you. Yes. And the big like we've thought it was scandalous that two teachers that we had were married, which nowadays makes sense. You work together, you live together. Um, so they were two of my favorites. Also, Miss Barnard, who was one of the English teachers, I loved her class. I basically loved a lot of the classes that I could geek out in and that the teachers like I was like teachers pet kind of not teachers pet. But like I really did. I was so excited about the classes. So the teachers spent a little more time with you when they realized how excited you were about whatever class. So it made me enjoy it more. And did you participate in any extracurricular activities while you were here? I did. I don't know if they still have school chorus there, but I was a member of the school chorus. Me and McKayla both do school chorus. Ah. Did anything out of the ordinary happen while you were here? Um, so yeah. So the space shuttle challenger. Um, I was, we were in Miss McCarthy's class and most of the classes were allowed to go up. So I'm not sure what the school looks like now, but there was this weird like back staircase and one of the classrooms was up in that area. Um, and so our pod, um, we knew that the space shuttle was launching that day and our pod was allowed to go up all the different classes. Um, so that we could witness the space shuttle challenger launch. Um, Miss McCarthy was actually on the, she was one of the finalists. I remember that. Um, and she was kind of not upset, but like she talked to us, we were rooting for her to be the teacher because they were going to take a teacher for the first time that year. They wanted a science teacher, um, to go into space. And she was one of the finalists actually, uh, for that project. And thank God she wasn't, um, she didn't end up getting in. It was actually ended up being a blessing because we unfortunately witnessed the space shuttle explode after takeoff. And that was, uh, there were a lot of tears that we didn't understand what was going on. Um, I think Mrs. McCarthy ended up having to leave for the day. It was such an emotional thing. So that was a big thing in US history and a really impactful, um, thing for us and for our teachers at the time. Okay. Hmm. And do you have any like strong memories about what happened at the audition? Um, so do you guys want like academic memories or do you want? Do you want some of the cool stuff that we did that could have gotten us killed? Um, don't do this, ladies. I'm about to tell you what we used to have the most fun doing. So after school. So we had, I don't know, do you guys still have like woodworking class and metal class, metal shop and stuff? Ah, so we did back in the day. Um, and so Mr. Crippoli, the metal shop teacher, the sheet metal that we would get for our projects would come in these huge boxes. So huge, like flat boxes. And what we would do is we would like take them out of the dumpster. So this is Meco and non-Meco students. Whole school was involved and we would unfold the boxes. Jade, maybe you guys used to do this too. I don't know. There's way before your time, but I just like pictured other generations doing it and we would flatten out the boxes. And in the winter, when that hill in front of the school, I'm hoping there's still a hill in front of the school, kind of like a weird funky hill. It starts off like this and then drops and then has a little level off bump. Yeah. And we used to get like 15 to 20 students sitting on one of those unfolded boxes and we would push off, lie down. And once you hit the bottom, ladies, once again, I know your teachers there listening as a teacher, I'm obligated to tell you, please do not try this, ladies. I am not condoning this. We were young. We were not, you know, we weren't thinking about consequences and thank God, none of us. It was amazing. We never broke a bone. We're still living. But that was something that was, yeah, that was something we liked to do. We loved when winter came in for those two winters that we had there while we were at the school, seventh and eighth, 15 to 20 kids, stupid kids, riding down the hill on a sled. I mean, come on, like, like we didn't have, right, we didn't have sleds. We made our own was. So now the questions are for Ms. Cheek. When you were a student here, what grades were like at the school? Seventh through eighth. Do you remember your principal and assistant principal? I cheated a little bit and I looked in my yearbooks because I still have to prove them. Dr. Malone Neville was the principal. I think when I was in eighth grade and Mr. Gonzalez was an assistant principal that I do remember. I just didn't know his name. Was there like any dress codes when you were here? I don't remember a dress code you could wear whatever you wanted, but I do remember somewhat of a strict rule about shorts being, I think, below the knee or something like that, where you couldn't wear short things. But for the most part, you could wear whatever you wanted to school. Was each grade divided into learning communities like it is now? Like Miss, is it Lou? Lou. Miss Lou said there were, for us, it was called clusters. And they were that was the name divided by numbers 640, 660, 70 and so on up to eighth grade. Would you take any foreign languages? I did not. I took academic support because I struggled with a lot of my classes, so I wasn't able to take a language. What was your favorite subject while you were here at school and your least favorite? Least favorite, I remember, was history. The teacher was very nice, amazing lady, and she tolerated me, but I didn't want to do the work. I didn't, I didn't understand the whole geographic stuff and I still don't. So I did not like history class or geography, but I did enjoy math class strictly because the teacher was a really nice guy and was very funny. Maybe English in eighth grade. I did like English class in eighth grade. Do you have any memories of any of your favorite teachers that you could share? So my academic support teacher, she's no longer there. Her name was Miss Baker. She lives in New York now. We're actually really good friends. We stayed in contact now that I'm grown. But she helped me a lot. She helped me get through middle school because without her, I don't know if I would have made it through. And she helped me, you know, as far as studying and personal life, but it was a class that I looked forward to, whether it was a real class or not. To me, it was a fake class, but I learned more there than I did sitting in a classroom with 20 other kids. Did you participate in any extracurricular activities? I also took part in the course in which led me to sing at my church. Out of the ordinary ever happened when you attended school here? Nothing that I can really remember. Nothing of significance. I will say maybe seventh grade. There was a really bad snowstorm and we were on a field trip and we got stuck on the school bus. I remember a bunch of medical students. We were stranded all night. Probably one week and we didn't get home to like one a.m. We were on the bus from early afternoon. So maybe it was fun. It was fun. What are your strongest memories about your time here at Audison? Audison was one of the best and worst times of my life. So I was bullied when I was in middle school from sixth all the way to eighth, probably all the way to ninth. That's why I left. I didn't have the best relationship with the other medical students, preferably the females. So I would say being bullied there kind of pushed me to where I am now and why I'm a cop. That's what I remember the most is like the bullying. OK, well, that's all I have for you. You'd like to end our interview with some questions about your experience as a medical student in Audison. And these questions are for Miss Lowe. When you were here, what were some things that were hard about being in Audison? So not so much hard about being in Audison hard throughout my time in Arlington. I did have some good friends. I'm very I've always been very introverted. So, you know, the friends I had, like they had to understand that I wasn't like going to be, you know, this extroverted, outgoing, like hanging out with 20 people at a time, except sledding down a hill because that was hey, it was fun. But one of the hardest things about being a Metco student throughout my time in Arlington, K through 12 was definitely there were some cool kids and teachers there, but there was definitely the underlying racism as well. And I did face that from other students and from teachers at the time, like because I was so young, I don't think I understood when it was happening from teachers. When I look back, I have a better understanding of some of the things that were said to me or done to me as a student that I can see clearly as a racist. So that was one of the biggest things. And also just having to walk, I call it walking the line. So growing up in the inner city in Boston. So like a church, like the church group and my other friends here in Boston, you know, all black or some Latino students. And then in Arlington, I was usually the only black kid in my class from kindergarten through junior high. Every once in a while in high school, there might be two of us, but there weren't a lot of Meco students. And unfortunately, the Meco students at the time I went to school in Arlington were the only black and brown students. So there were there was that struggle of walking the line, you know, like getting flack from my friends in the city and then also getting that, like, you know, those racist undertones and things from some of the kids in Arlington. But the good thing was I had a good core of friends that were very supportive and, you know, that made that manageable and bearable. When you were here, what were some things that you did like about being a Meco student? So even though I talked about how being different could sometimes cause issues and make it be treated a certain way, I kind of also liked being different. And then I was a bit of a nerd. So like talking to my friends that went to school in Boston and sadly, we face the same thing in Boston Public Schools now. You know, I would get upset. Now, I don't know if you guys still have like paper textbooks, like our cover textbooks, I'm assuming that you do for some of your classes. So inside the cover of our textbooks, there would be like lines, almost like a library book or a library card where they stamp the card with dates. But on the line, you'd write your name because you were the kid that had that book that year. And I remember getting like upset one time. I believe I was getting upset because there were like two names before me in the book, which meant that there were kids had that book two years before me. And I was talking to one of my good friends that went to Boston Public Schools and she was like, you have a book. And so I realized the differences in the resources. That was one of the reasons my mom was adamant about me getting into Mecko the year that she wanted me in. I was too young. My birthday is in November. And she fought for me to she's like, give whatever tests you need to give, whatever assessment my child is starting kindergarten in Arlington. I want it to be so because at the time in Boston, you have people throwing rocks at buses because they didn't want kids in South Boston or Charlestown or wherever. So I realized like in middle school, that was about the time I realized that it was a pretty good situation there. Like you could learn unhindered. And when I mean that, like meaning resource wise, you didn't have to fight for resources. The teachers didn't have to make copies of pages out of books because you had the book. So that was one of the good things I found about Mecko and that I still appreciate to this day. Looking back at it now, what were you glad that you became a Mecko student in the audience? So I was I'm glad for my Mecko experience because I think it gave me kind of like a thick skin to deal with some of the issues that as a black woman in the world, I have to deal with on a day to day basis at work and outside of work. So I mean, I think that it's a learning experience, not just academically, but I appreciated that the things that I went through and some of the the obstacles that I had to overcome helped me to be the person that I am today. And as a teacher, it helps me because I can look back at things that I learned and teach my students the things they need to know that they might not understand being in a classroom with unlike I had with kids that look like them. And now I just have like basically the same questions for Ms. Sheik. So when you were at the audition or like just in general, what were the hard parts of being a Mecko student for you? Um, the hard parts were for me, traveling back and forth. I was very attached to my dad. So going to school every day was a struggle. I mean, the older I got, the better I got. But I hated getting on that bus. Like I hated being what felt like hours away and it was only maybe 45 to an hour. I didn't like not having the ability to go home if I wanted and watching other students walk out the door and walk to their house or just being so far, it felt like towns and towns away. For me, that was a struggle because I just kind of wanted to be in Boston. I just went to the post. When you were here, what did you like about being a Mecko student? So I got to experience, for me, it felt like another family, probably closer to ninth grade, so maybe the end of eighth grade. I had two friends, Jesse, Jesse and Jessica. I used to get picked on because I hung out with two white girls. That's what they would say. And you always hang out with the white girls. You don't hang out with the white girls, but their moms and their parents' family like took me in when I couldn't go home or I missed the bus or I just wanted to spend a weekend out there. I had another family. So being a Mecko student, if I wasn't a Mecko student, I probably wouldn't have had that experience. We had a dance night and the only I got to go to the dance night on a Friday was if I had somewhere to stay that weekend and they were there. So I built another family at the time. Looking back at it, are you glad that you were in Mecko? I am. I absolutely am because I did. I like she said, I grew some skills that allowed me to do my job today. Thicker skin, being the only black female in my class or the only black kid in my class period for a few years. It was tough being asked like, how does it feel being the only black kid in here? Like, you know, you have to let certain things slide. Like, you I mean, you have to address certain things as well. But you pick and choose your battles and it allowed me to just say, OK, well, I'm still here, like, whether you like it or not, I'm still here. I'm not going anywhere. So it allowed me to be a little tougher and voice my opinion and have a voice. Do you guys have any last comments? I am. Oh, go ahead, Jade. Oh, I wanted to say and I think this is like the teacher. I'm going to get all teachery on you guys now. But good job, ladies. That was you did very, very well, very, very well. And, you know, I think, you know, have confidence and disability. Like, this is a cool thing. Like being able to interview strangers is not an easy thing. Like, you don't know who we are. You're trying to get to know us more. You're speaking from questions. But I noticed that you guys got more comfortable as it went along and you put some of the questions in your own words. So I want to say good job. Definitely take advantage of the fact that you have zoom because I didn't have zoom like she said computers back then. We have this. So right here, use it to your advantage and rely on each other as well. Hold each other up because you're going to do this together and you're going to remember it when you're in your thirties and forties and fifties. Thank you. Thank you guys. Thank you for talking to us today. We really appreciate it. Bye, guys. Thank you for being here with me, too. Thank you so much. Both of you guys really appreciate it. No problem. Any time. OK, bye bye. Bye. Nice meeting you.