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Students shrink culture gap Buffalo Grove High School basks in the success of two-day diversity exchange.

Article Excerpt
Byline: Erin Holmes Daily Herald Staff Writer

All her life, tall, energetic and blond Erin Horan has gone to school with white kids like herself.

White was, and is, the norm in most classrooms - and even those who don't have that skin color tend to share a generally well-to-do background.

But for two days recently, she sampled another life.

In a unique venture for understanding, Horan and nearly 40 of her classmates from the affluent, mostly white Buffalo Grove High traded places with teens at the more modest, predominantly black Proviso East High in Maywood.

The schools are only 30 miles from each other, but for these teens, they seem a world apart.

"I was scared to go because I'd never been out of my school," says Horan, who deliberately left behind her Abercrombie & Fitch attire in favor of more simple garb to avoid sticking out. "I'd never been out of where I was comfortable. I was scared to meet a bunch of new people where I would be the outsider."

Approaching Proviso, Buffalo Grove High teens saw tattered houses, dirtier streets. Inside, they saw fewer computers, tighter security and more laid-back classes. They watched in awe as Proviso teens performed raps at lunch.

Yet Horan managed to find more similarities than differences.

Her Proviso East partner was a teen who loves...

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