Lowell, Massachusetts
Welcome to the historic town of Lowell, Massachusetts, first settled in 1652 and known for being one of the greatest contributors to the Industrial Revolution. With approximately 4000 students, Lowell is the second largest high school in Massachusetts and boasts a diversity of ethnicities and religions that rival our own school. According to Greatschools.net, the school has a 33 percent Asian population, 28 percent more than the state average. It also has seven percent more Hispanic students and three percent more African-American students than the rest of the state.

"Every single different type of person there is on this earth goes to Lowell," said junior Marc Funaro. Senior Sarah Kanellas described the student population as containing "everything from gangs to preps." "My favorite thing about my school is the size, and as a result, all the different kinds of people you meet every single day," senior Rebekah Allen said.

"We have just about every nation represented in our school," senior Matheus Candido added.

The great diversity of the school is reflected in some of the students’ interests. "A lot of students join the International Language club," Funaro said, adding that the club presents participants with the chance to travel to Canada and Spain. According to Allen, the school’s New Age Club invites students from various religious backgrounds to engage in the study of different religions while "engaging in some healthy debate."

With crew, volleyball, basketball, softball, cheerleading, and soccer as some of the most popular activities to be involved in, the school’s diversity allows acceptance of some things you wouldn’t expect to be popular. "Believe it or not, Band (is really popular)," Allen said. "People don’t really rag on the band kids too much, not unless they’re real jerks."

Despite the opportunities to engage in some worldly unification, some students said they find the campus creates more segregation. "(The cliques) are basically divided racially," Kanellas said. "Blacks, Puerto Ricans, Whites, Asians — lots of Asians," she said.

Candido agreed, but explained that there wasn’t a problem of one clique dominating the school and terrorizing others. "I get along with pretty much everybody, however, I do not believe it’s the same for the other people," he said. "The races don’t really mix up with each other." The vast student numbers and differences in groups also contribute to the impossibility of one of them "ruling the school."

Being a student at Lowell, MA means figuring out how to deal with people in ways most teenagers in the rest of the not-so-diverse Massachusetts don’t have to yet. "You learn really fast what offends certain people so that you don’t get yourself beat up," Allen said.

In the interest of campus security, the school administration enforces a strict ID tag rule. "We have to wear ID badges around our necks at all times," Candido said. Allen explained that the rule is "a security thing so the police and security staff will know who is a student and who is a random guy walking around the school." Students without ID badges are sent to detention.

ID badges, while not a favorite aspect of the school, have become an accepted part of life. "ID badges aren’t really a big deal," Allen said. "People just make a big deal out of it because they don't like being told what to do."

The enforcement of ID badges came about because of the high crime rate in Lowell, MA. "Last year three kids from our school were shot dead in the same week," Allen said. According to Funaro, the popular crime reality show Cops wanted to film in the town.

Like an all-American high school, like what many of us dream football games should be, Lowell, Massachusetts’ football games are like a scene out of Friday Night Lights. "The main sport here would definitely be football!" Candido said. "The games are packed, and since we have a huge stadium it’s always fun to go there," he said. Funaro described the games as "school without learning" and "a giant get-together." The football team had a 6-3 record last year.

While football games boast the most attendance with several hundred spectators every weekend, track attracts the most student athletes. "(Track) is where you meet and become friends with half the school," Candido said.

While our Massachusetts counterpart may outweigh us in school spirit, they have yet to challenge our academic record (but then again, who has?) "I’d say most people drop out and get their GEDs," Allen said. "My class started out with a little over 1000 students and now we have only 727, and the year’s not over yet," she said. Greatschools.com ranked the school as a three out of ten based on test scores.

Most students loathe swimming in the Lowell High pool. "It’s pretty gross," Funaro said.

The number one camps complaint sounds familiar: "There are so many people," Kanellas said. "It’s impossible to walk down the hallways!"

Lowell, Michigan
We share the same school colors, but that is about the only thing our Cardinal’s and Michigan’s Red Arrows have in common. Lowell High is situated in Lowell, Michigan, a small town of 4,140 and fits football-obsessed Midwesterners.

    “We live in a really small farm town,” junior Kathy Fyan said. “Our high school is known for our football team, so just about everybody goes to the games on Friday nights.” Lowell High’s football team, currently holding third place in the entire state, won the state championships in 2002 and 2004.

According to junior Matt Dec, around 1000 to 5000 people show up to their football games. However, when playing rival East Grand Rapids (similar to Lowell in Battle of the Birds), this all-star football team attracts not only students, but people from outside the town as well. According to junior Chelsea Deyer, the stadium, which holds 10,000, is usually filled up.

Aside from football, the agricultural atmosphere of Lowell, MA also dictates the way of life at school. All high schools have cliques, but Lowell has an additional group. “Along with the jocks, the cheerleaders, the preps, the skaters, and the punks,” Dec said, the “rednecks, or farm kids” clique also exists. The rednecks clique’s attire includes plain white t-shirts, work boots, jeans and camouflage hats.

“The rednecks, or farm kids, and football players are the main cliques in the school,” Dec said. “There are offshoots here and there, but those are the big ones.”

Lowell, Michigan is essentially the basis for all teenage-angst football movies. All of the Lowellites interviewed made it clear that the cheerleaders were at the top of the social ladder, and they usually climbed down only for football players.

Dec, a member of the varsity soccer team, does not mind the cheerleaders’ preference for football players. “In my opinion, I think it’s better that we soccer players get all the girls who aren’t cheerleaders,” Dec said.

Aside from the small-town stereotypical cliques, school traditions also show how rural life rules in this high school. “On the last few days before summer starts, people drive their big tractors to school,” junior Chelsea Dyer said.

In addition to school traditions, current fashion trends help display the major influence the high school takes from its rural environment. One brand name that is popular in Lowell, Michigan is Carhartts. Carhartts, with its sturdy slogan, “Hard at work since 1889,” is a clothing line designed for hard laborers. Its line mainly consists of durable jackets, coats, overalls and coveralls. In short, cowboys would go buck wild in a Carhartts department store.

Lowell Pride
The Michigan, Massachusetts, and California campuses might seem worlds apart, with their tractors to our Munis, their enormous stadium to our old football feld, and their ID cards to our open campus, but we all share an interest for our sister schools. Almost all the Red Arrows interviewed wanted to know what our Lowell was like, how different or how similar our schools were, and what life is like in a big city as opposed to their small town.

We both also have an immense amount of school pride. All the Michigan Lowellites interviewed had nothing but glowing appraisals for their school, from their academics to their all-star sports teams. One student got so excited talking about their football and soccer teams that he ended his long-winded rant, which included a play-by-play of a recent game, with a definitive “Woohoo!”

We might share the same alma mater, but like most siblings we have our differences. In our dysfunctional family, Massachusetts is the bad boy, Michigan is the farm kid, and we are the nerd. We’re not identical triplets but we sure are fraternal.