The Student Exchange Program involves students from John Glenn and Wayne Memorial High Schools pairing up with Chelsea High School students so they can explore CHS facilities. The students from Wayne Memorial and John Glenn shadowed Chelsea students to see what a day looked like in the life of a student-athlete at Chelsea High School. 

“One of the main differences I see at Chelsea High School compared to Wayne Memorial is the number of students,” sophomore Colleena Bryant said. “At Wayne Memorial, we have over 1500 students, whereas Chelsea has only a couple hundred students.” 

A big difference that junior Jalen Clark noticed was the way that Chelsea school lunches were run compared to John Glenn.

“At John Glenn, we don’t have as many snack options as Chelsea has,” Clark said. “Chelsea has a wider variety. They have things like frozen yogurt and ice cream.”

Something that senior Nick Wetmore noticed and enjoyed was the new auxiliary gym and weight room at Chelsea. 

“Chelsea’s athletic facilities are very nice. They have a really good structured program that’s really easy to follow and enjoy,” Wetmore said. 

Coach Brad Bush is childhood best friends with the superintendent at John Glenn High School and Wayne Memorial High School. The idea to bring students from an urban and more diverse school to see what a more rural school was like and vice versa was their brainchild. 

“We do the student exchange to help open our eyes and to see what else is out there, outside of our own school,” junior Jake Stevens said. ”I remember Jalen, my student, was telling me about how loud his school is compared to Chelsea.” 

The majority of the pairings were similar athletes. For example, senior Gabe Anstead was paired up with Wetmore due to their love of baseball.

“[Wetmore] was talkative, outgoing, and funny,” Anstead said. ”He was talking to teachers as well as being very social.” 

Senior Megan McCalla was the one to bring the idea back up to Coach Bush. McCalla thought the program was a really cool experience and an amazing opportunity to meet different people, even though there were some difficulties in getting set up.

“I think one thing that was a little hard was that we did have two schools come to Chelsea, so some of the kids didn’t know or didn’t have friends that were in the program,” McCalla said. “I think when we go over to John Glenn and Wayne Memorial though it will be a much better experience.” 

One of the most memorable parts of the student exchange this year was the friendships created throughout the day.

“One of the main ideas was to make really good relationships,” McCalla said. “It was one of the goals that Coach Bush had in mind when he started this program.”