Eight students from Alta Vista High School loaded up this morning for the Spring Break Youth Experience weekend in Chicago.

The experience is a collaboration between the Mattie Rhodes Center, Guadalupe Center High School and KCPD’s Police Athletic League with the goal of exposing urban youth to positive experiences in different areas of the country.

Mattie Rhodes CEO John Fierro outlined part of what the weekend held for the eight high school seniors. “They’re gonna do some some sightseeing go into some museums, some libraries and having a little fun, but I think more than anything, just giving them an opportunity to see the rest of our country, you know, face to face.

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas joined KCPD Chief Stacy Graves in wishing the students well and hoped they came away with a fresh perspective on moving forward in life. “I’m just hoping that they know that, you know, the world is out there that there are great opportunities through hard work, they can do almost anything.”

We’ll have a complete rundown on the weekend trip in next week’s print and digital editions of The Northeast News.