Trading spaces: East, West students walk around in each other’s shoes, hallways
By Jenette Sturges jsturges@stmedianetwork.com February 21, 2012 7:14PM
From left: West Aurora sophomore Dylan Oncken and East Aurora senior Ricky Barajas listen as West Aurora senior Richie Renner shares his thoughts on shadowing students at East as part of the Aurora 360 East-West Youth Exchange on Tuesday. East students started their days shadowing students at West before trading places and hosting their counterparts at East for the afternoon. | Jeff Cagle~For Sun-Times Media
Updated: March 23, 2012 8:22AM
AURORA — There are some details around a high school that only a student would notice.
“West has to wear their ID tags all the time ... There’s so much space in the hallways ... A lot of diversity,” chimed in East Aurora High School students, on the things they noticed after a morning spent at West Aurora High School.
Twenty-six students traded places Tuesday — 13 each from East and West Aurora — to shadow their student counterparts throughout the school day, at West High in the morning and at East all afternoon. The event, dubbed the Aurora 360 Youth Exchange, was designed in part by students to bridge the gaps of a city “divided by the river.”
To learn more about their two schools — what they have in common and what’s different — students from leadership positions around their schools paired off according to their positions and classes, and shadowed each other throughout their schedules.
“He came with me to study hall and to gym,” said Eddie Sak, a senior at West High, of his partner, East senior Nathan Acevedo. “He’s got quite the shot.”
East Aurora students took their West Side visitors on personal tours, showing off highlights like the NJROTC’s many trophies and the swimming pool — something West Aurora lacks.
And then there were the unofficial tour highlights common to all schools — where students hang out to skip class, which security cameras don’t always work.
“We haven’t had any fights though this year,” said Stephanie Lazcano, East senior and student board member.
“Really?” said her counterpart on the West Aurora School Board, Nataly Rios. “We’ve had a couple.”
Those were the eye-opening moments of surprise organizers were hoping for, in their attempt to tear down the negative images each school has of its crosstown rival.
“The rumors aren’t true,” said East senior Angie Sosa. “Everyone has these stereotypes that when you come to East you’re going to get beat up.”
Instead, West students sat in on an AP humanities class that debated “Candide.”
East students followed around West Siders to band, gym and lunch, and decided West’s students were decidedly less stuck up than their reputation might suggest.
“I thought this is just going to be a bunch of snobby people rubbing it in,” said East Aurora’s Miguel Sanchez. “But they’re really just like everybody else.”
And East students dispelled the talk that their school was dangerous.
“I told my friends I was going to East for the day, and one of them told me to bring a bullet-proof vest,” said Chase Woods, a junior at West. “I thought East was ghetto, or rough, but the kids aren’t much different from kids at my school.”
To close out the day, students reconvened to share ideas on how to pull the two sides of town together.
“Become those ambassadors,” said East Aurora Community Relations Director Clayton Muhammad. “Become those voices, so that when your friends say something, you can say, no, that’s not right. Those Tomcats or those Blackhawks are OK.”
That sparked debate over whether the collective students of Aurora should be “Tomahawks” or “Black Cats.” But students also suggested more events to get students crossing the river and meeting each other — from a high-school-level citywide sports festival to a lock-in or a dance or a Mr. Aurora competition.
Or, perhaps, the expansion of the Aurora 360 Exchange next year to include more students from more clubs, spending more time at each school.
“There’s those misconceptions everyone has,” said Acevedo. “It’s nice opening the book and seeing the stories.”
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