Schools

Mercer Island Rotary Seeks Applicants, Families for Foreign Exchange Program

MI Rotary is seeking local families interested in hosting opportunities, and from Mercer Island High School Sophomores interested in studying abroad during their Junior year.

Rotary Club Mercer Island is offering local families the unique opportunity to see the world through an exchange student’s eyes.  

Applications are currently being accepted from Mercer Island families interested in hosting opportunities, and from Mercer Island High School Sophomores interested in studying abroad during their Junior year.
 

Host families enjoy the company of a student for three months. The requirements includetreating the student as part of the family, providing the student with his or her own bed, food, and transportation. Students provide their own medical insurance and receive an allowance from Rotary that helps with the cost extracurricular activities and incidentals. Rotary also
provides counselors to guide and support the host families and student through every step of the process.
 
Rotary Club Mercer Island selects one Mercer Island student each year to study abroad.  Past students have been fortunate to spend a year in Australia, Brazil, Denmark, Switzerland, Germany, France, Finland, and Chile, to name a few.  The cost for the Rotary program is considerably less than other exchange opportunities; this year the cost was $4,750 for the year including airfare.  Current Mercer Island Sophomores should complete an application by the end of October, 2013 to be considered for an exchange for the 2014-2015 school year.  Selected students must be in good health, demonstrate an open mind and flexibility, have an above average academic record, and participate in community and extracurricular activities.

Dating back at least to 1994, Mercer Island Rotary Club has hosted one high school student every year from another country to come and stay on Mercer Island, and experience Island Youth life, and American life in general. MI Rotary also sponsors a local U.S . high school student to attend school and live with a host family in another country. By attending school and living with a family in each country high school students & their host families  achieve a unique understanding of the culture of another country.
 
For the 2012/13 school year, Mercer Island played host to Nilton Santos Biazi Junior from Brazil.  Junior arrived last August and he blended right in at Mercer Island High School.  He stayed with 2 different families on the island; Lesley and Sandy Piha, and Kathleen Moody and Scott Sedlik.
 
“Junior was our family's first experience having an exchange student and it really was the best experience of our lives," said Piha, Junior's first host mom. "He came on this exchange with an open mind, willing and wanting to be a part of everything our family and community offered.  We learned so much about each other’s cultures, religions, language, etc.

"Junior not only became a mentor for our three boys, but is now their big brother.  Because of this experience we are looking forward to visiting Junior and his family next year in Brazil - a place we would not have considered prior to this exchange.”
 
Junior’s second host mom, Kathleen Moody said her family was lucky to host a student last year.

"Junior enriched our lives," she said. "We were able to expand our understanding of Brazil and enjoy his wonderful humor and infectious exuberance. Junior shared his new Mercer Island High School friends with our family which brought many evenings of joy to us all. Our son, David says the house is too quiet now, and wants to know if we can host another exchange student. We now feel our family is expanded forever with our other son and brother, Junior Biazi.”
 
Junior has been involved with Rotary since he was 12 years old.  From volunteering and learning about Rotary, Junior was given the opportunity to take a leadership role in the exchange program.  He came with a bigger goal of securing grant money to benefit a nursery school in his home town.  The grant that Junior helped to draft during his exchange was selected and fully funded by Rotary International.  

“I learned to be an advocate of my country and my culture”, said Junior.   “It was a wonderful experience, and I had the opportunity to celebrate several holidays; Halloween, Thanksgiving and Hanukah that are not celebrated in Brazil.  The experience helped build understanding between culture and race.”
 
There are over 8,000 exchange students from more than 80 countries hosted by Rotary Clubs each year.  The exchange students have many opportunities to connect with one another and learn about each other’s culture, as well as the local culture.  In July, Junior had the opportunity to tour with 35 other Rotary exchange students through California, Nevada and Arizona. Friendships between these Youth are valuable and definitely laid the foundation to world peace.
 
Chiara Malaguzzi was selected to represent Mercer Island for the 2012-2013 school year, and has recently returned from her year-long exchange in Chile.  “Exchange taught me that you can have more than one family, more than one home. It fills you with desire to always see more, creates connections around the world that are simply irreplaceable, brings out qualities in you that you may not have thought you had, but most importantly it stays with you forever.”

The Rotary Club of Mercer Island is part of ROTARY INTERNATIONAL, an international humanitarian service organization dedicated to friendship, fellowship, and service to others. The Club meets every Tuesday from 12:00–1:30 p.m., at The Mercer Island Community and Event Center 8236 SE 24th Street, Mercer Island, WA 98040.

To learn more about the Rotary Youth Exchange Program, contact Claudina Campbell at 425-463-9051 or claudinac@comcast.net.


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