Local Video
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| Rotary Youth Exchange makes a world of difference |
By: VICKI DILLEY, Guest Columnist
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Posted: Tuesday, September 30, 2008 9:18 pm
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The most powerful force in the promotion of international understanding and peace is exposure to different cultures. The world becomes a smaller, friendlier place when we learn that all people — regardless of nationality — desire the same basic things. Rotary Youth Exchange provides thousands of young people with the opportunity to meet people from other countries and to experience their cultures. This plants the seeds for a lifetime of international understanding.
Northfield has been a community rich with youth exchange since 1969 when we first hosted Johnnie Rvenginesh from Thailand. Since that time we have sent and hosted more than 200 students.
Northfield recently sent eight NHS graduates to places they only recently started dreaming about. Ethan Neal went to Bolivia, Sam Studer to Slovakia, Naomi Miessler to Lithuania, Michael Goodwin to Taiwan, Great Klawiter to Brazil, Jessica Klimisch to Argentina, Breanna Tetreault to Poland and Margy Shuster to Germany. They are busy learning a new language, a new school, making friends and getting comfortable with their new host families ... just like the four new students that recently arrived in Northfield: Ryota Kimura from Japan, Elisa Skytte from Denmark, Matheus Mattos from Brazil and Pablo Maldonado from Ecuador.
These are very challenging times and this is often when a student questions why they thought this would be fun. But, in my experience, the months pass and suddenly they find they can understand what is being said around them and they start saying “my family” and have a real sense of belonging and then they realize that months have passed and they have only just begun to do all that they want to in this very short time in their new homeland. Rotary exchange students come home ready and eager for the next chapter in their lives.
So, if you are a high school student between the ages of 15 and 19, then you may be eligible for RYE.
As the oldest exchange program of its kind, RYE takes pride in choosing students who are articulate, and demonstrate leadership in their communities.
Ideal candidates should also possess qualities like flexibility and a willingness to try new things that will enable them to become excellent cultural ambassadors.
Linnea Johnson went as a junior in high school to Brazil and I think she sums it up well.
“So … my time in Brazil went from being a whole year to just a year, and time passed faster than ever. It was the most challenging, strengthening, fun, opening, humbling, enriching and inspiring year of my life. I learned more than I thought possible in a year. I learned another language and immeasurable things about myself and the surrounding world. My future will forever be shaped by this experience I had as a Rotary Youth Exchange Student. Truly amazing things happen in the exchange program.”
To learn more about applying for a year abroad beginning at the end of summer 2009, please call or e-mail Vicki Dilley, 645-6379, or vdilley@iglide.net. Application deadline is Oct. 18.
—Vicki Dilley is a member of the Rotary and a long-time host to RYE students. |
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