Image Courtesy of Grant L. Gursky/Delmarvanow.com
Normally when we cover converted buses, the vehicles have been repurposed for a personal purpose like traveling the country or creating the ultimate tailgating vehicle. However, the Mattie C. Stewart Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing the high school dropout rate, used their ‘Choice Bus’ to influence students to make positive decisions for their future.
The front half of the school bus appears ordinary, but the back half is painted all white with wooden barriers over the windows, simulating the appearance of a prison transport bus.
The contrast between the two halves of the “Choice Bus” are intended to represent the choices young students make that may lead from education to incarceration, according to Brian Shane, reporter from Delmarva Now. So far, the bus has visited more than 2 million students in 20 states.
On the front half of the bus, the traditional bus seats are turned towards the rear, facing a flat-screen television and a black curtain. After a member of the foundation shows students a short video featuring interviews with real prison inmates who reflect on the choices they made that lead to a life in prison.
“If I would have just stayed in my books like I used to be, and hung around a better crowd, I wouldn’t be in the predicament I’m in today,” said a 19-year-old on the video, identified as Monique, who’s serving a seven-year sentence in a maximum-security women’s prison.
Buses are already an essential part of the lives of students, but it is exciting to see the organization using the vehicle to influence the decisions young people make that influence their life well after they leave school behind.
