Three Rotary Exchange Students through the years
We were extremely fortunate to one former and two current Rotary Exchange Students with us at Friday's meeting to hear feedback from Bianca's year in Spain and the many other European countries that she visited during her gap year. Check out Bianca's adventures on Facebook. www.facebook.com/BiancainSpainOur Honorary member Fiona Simpson MP, was there to add her support to this fantastic Rotary Youth program that adds so much to the development of teenagers and Fiona recalled her Youth Exchange year in Japan.
Our Youth Exchange (outbound) student Bianca Aird, recently returned from Spain, spoke to the club about her experiences in Denia, and around Europe, Paris, Berlin, Prague, Budapest and skiing in Andorra and cave exploring in the Czech republic.
Meanwhile our inbound student, Amy Fris from Denmark is half way through her year in Australia and was also there with "Rotary Family" Stuart and Karen. Incidentally, the Rotary Copenhagen club founded the Youth exchange program in 91927, and every year there are 9,000 Rotary Youth Exchange students around the world learning and experiencing different cultures around the world. This can only promote badly needed international goodwill and understanding.
Fiona was a Rotary Exchange student, (just a few years ago) and spent her exchange time in Japan, and has fond memories of her time there. The "three amigo's" got together to share stories about their experiences and how the Rotary Youth Exchange has left them with many long term friends around the world. Bianca is now fluent in Spanish (Couldn't speak a word before she left) and in particular the dialect of Spanish that is spoken in the Valencia region - a mixture of Spanish, French and Italian!
How marvellous that Bianca has Fiona as a high achieving female role model to relate to and no doubt we will be hearing more from Bianca as she progresses through University.
Bob Thompson also reminded us that on his recent European tour he caught up with his Exchange "family" of 25 years ago, so thats testimony to the lasting nature of relationships formed through this great program.
Meanwhile you can also catch up with our (outbound) Youth Exchange Student Chloe from Mountain Creek and her adventures in Brazil through her facebook page. See our website (www.alexandrarotary.com) for details on that link.