Some high school students are more committed than others. Just ask Santiago Munoz of Queens, New York.
According to a March 5 article by New York Post, Munoz may possibly have the longest commute in the world as he spends five hours each day getting to and from school in the Bronx. The 14-year-old's trip was made longer since Hurricane Sandy devastated the East Coast late last year.
Most school administrators and parents would think that only students in developing countries would have to endure such lengthy trips to school. But as Santiago Munoz's case shows, it also happens here in America.
Each day, the teen mazes through a labyrinth of metropolitan mass transit routes and schedules. He wakes up in the wee hours of the morning from his Far Rockaway housing project and takes two buses and two subway trips to the Bronx's High School of Science.
He boards the first transit bus at 5:50 a.m. At 6:11 a.m., he transfers to a second bus. At 6: 51 a.m., he rides New York's busy "A" train. Then, at 7:30 a.m. Munoz boards the "4" train. The 14-year-old finally arrives at the Bronx's High School of Science at 8:30 a.m.
The school is considered one of the nation's premier college preparatory schools. In a March 5 interview with ABC News, Munoz simply said "to be successful, you have to sacrifice".
Munoz's one-way trip runs nearly two and a half hours, and that depends on waiting time for New York's busy mass transit. If there is an advantage to commuting here in the U.S., it's the availability of technology such as mobile devices that enable workers and students to stay productive while on the go. Additionally, students can do part of their school assignments while commuting.
"The trip I do every day to get to school everyone should be willing to do to get a good education," said Munoz. The student will be featured in an upcoming United Nations exhibit showing the daily struggles of school-related commutes around the world. One photo shows a girl in Kenya who walks to and from school nearly four hours each day.
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