This summer six local pin-covered youth travelled to different countries across the globe and are currently living and going to school in them as part of the Rotary Youth Exchange program.
The worldwide program is set up by Rotary International and involves about 8,000 youth between the ages of 15-19 living in communities selected from over 200 countries that Rotary has a presence in.
The two Rotary clubs in Sault Ste. Marie accepted 3 inbound students from Slovakia, Brazil, and Belgium as well as sending out the six youth.
The following local students are participating and living overseas: Aimee Carter in Thailand, Danielle McKenney in Germany, Mitchell Harris in Turkey, Lindsay Virene in Argentina, Chris Seymour and Audrey Steele in Belgium.
“One of the reasons (Rotary puts on the exchange program) is to make connections around the world ... You can’t hate a country if you’ve lived there and you’ve met the people. You bring peace with you everywhere you go because even though we are different we’re still the same," said Virene.
Rotary youth stand out because of their bright pin-covered red blazers that they are required to wear when travelling to and from their host countries and while at Rotary conferences.
They get the pins from other Rotary youth they meet at special conferences.
The year before they leave the students learn from previous exchange students and inbound students at several of these conferences held across Canada and the United States while the year after they return they go to the same type of conferences but this time to help prepare new exchange students.
This means that while they are overseas for one year the program is actually three years long.
“Once you meet all the exchange students and you go to these conferences you just get even more excited and it builds it up because everyone wants to go," Virene said. "You just want to be a part of it once you see all the people that are form other counties enjoying their time here and in the U.S. – you just want to be a part of it."
According to local Rotary members, originally Rotary International didn’t want to accept so many exchange students from the Sault because they try to keep the balance of inbound and outbound students equal but when there was a space opening and they saw the quality of the students they asked “What are you putting in the water up there?” and accepted the six.
For those chosen it is a life-changing experience.
“I experience culture shock every day,” wrote Mitchell Harris in an e-mail from his host country Turkey where he had just spent the previous three days spearfishing in the Aegean Sea.
“Most importantly, I've learned that my Canadian culture is not the one-true-culture …. Turkish culture isn't weird it's different. Just like Canadian culture isn't the best, it's just different than this culture … I find this the most important because I was quite ethno-centric before I left. But now I realize there's just too many people, races, ethnicities, etc. in this world to say that one is the best, or others are inferior. They're just different.”
Rotary recommends that the exchange youth don’t have their parents visit them and they are told that if they get homesick and visit Canada, at Christmas for example, their exchange will be terminated.
“They tell our parents that when we comeback don’t expect the same person because everyone changes through an experience like this, just being on your own for a year in a different culture and different language.” said McKenney.
(Aimee Carter (left) travelled to Thailand and Danielle McKenney (right) went to Germany for one year as part of the Rotary Youth Exchange program this summer. Photo by Jeff Klassen.)