The Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School has been recognized as a model school for efforts to create respect and understanding among students.

The high school was one of 104 schools named as a Mix It Up Model School by the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Teaching Tolerance program. The school was honored for its annual Brazilian-American Friendship Lunch.

Mix It Up at Lunch Day asks students to move out of their comfort zones and connect with someone new over lunch, encouraging students to identify, question and cross social boundaries.

Criteria for being named a model school include hosting a Mix It Up lunch day during the 2014-2015 school year that included different members of the school community and following it up with two additional Mix It Up programs or events.