Some teens had iPod earbuds stuffed in their ears, drowning out the wild cheering. Hoodies up. Others stared straight ahead or at the ground.

But the people cheering at the entrance of Mifflin High School (in Columbus, Ohio) last week wouldn’t be ignored.

It was only 7 a.m., but they danced like maniacs as students trickled off the yellow buses and through the school’s front doors. They yelled, pointed and clapped. Nonsense cheers — one about peeling bananas. Pump-you-up cheers: “Hey, it’s you! (clap) You’re here! (clap) That’s great!”

Eventually, some students grinned. One danced along with the City Year Columbus mentors. This high-energy greeting is the new normal every day at Mifflin, Linden-McKinley and South high schools, which began working this year with an anti-dropout program called Diplomas Now.

Read the rest of the story at The Columbus Dispatch