Our outgoing exchange student in 2019 is Tiegan Broussard, who will be travelling to Denmark. Tiegan was an engaging speaker who is 16 years old and looking forward to her trip. She spoke about wanting to help her host family become more proficient in English and is looking forward to fitting in with the locals. Tiegan has already spoken with her three host families and reckons that they are just like Australians. She is particularly looking forward to the chance to travel to Greece with her host school during one of the school holiday periods. Tiegan made the point that her family has very little money and that the opportunity given to her by Rotary means that she can achieve something that she could not otherwise even imagine – the chance to travel to Europe. One heartbreaking thing we learnt from her speech is that her family was kicked out of their home due to financial stress and that this was a cause of much difficulty for them. I am so pleased that we can help such a decent young woman, who gave a beautiful and moving speech.
Category Archives: Exchange Students
President’s Message
A big thank you goes out to Greg Aplin this week for arranging the grant from the State Government of $7,000 to help us pay for a new BBQ Trailer – which was presented at last week’s meeting. Also to Dennis Hickey and Roger Snell for writing the submission that secured us this grant. One of the first tasks of the new board will be to ensure that we have this new trailer up and running ASAP. It was a fun meeting last week. It was great to hear about Katrine’s year with us (hard to believe it is nearly over) and to present her with her Aussie Akubra hat. Katrine has been an excellent exchange student and we will miss her when she leaves. We also presented Damien Toohey (Principal at Albury High) with a certificate of appreciation for supporting our exchange student program. Our work with youth programs including River of Stories, Kitenden and Paying it Forward are a large part of who we are as a Club and as Rod and Kellie remind us regularly – the future of Rotary. Last for this week. I’ve been wearing my new Rotary jacket into work from time to time. Mandy asked me one day if it was appropriate. That got me thinking about showing pride in being a Rotarian and telling people who we are and what we do. I wore the jacket to a client meeting one day to discover that the client’s father had been a Rotarian for 35 years. As my year draws to a close I’m going to set a challenge that we all tell one new person each week that we are Rotarians and that we are proud of that work we do in the community. Hopefully you will all accept this challenge.
Club Meeting 28 March 2018
Guest Speaker, Lauren Murphy was our outbound exchange student in 2017 to Switzerland. Lauren is from Benalla. Lauren successfully completed the exchange student program and this photo is of Lauren receiving her certificate from Bruce McIntyre, chair of student exchange for district 9790. This week Lauren spoke to us about her year in Switzerland
Youth
Youth Exchange: Our inbound exchange student (Katrine Lundsgaard) has now been in Australia for 3 months and has settled in very well to Australian life. She has been well looked after by her first host family, the Cranage family (Peter and Karen). She is now at Mittagundi for a week long camp with other inbound students. This is always a highlight of the youth exchange calendar. On her return on 5th November, Katrine will move to her 2nd host family (Alice Glachan and Nicholas Little). Our current outbound (Lauren Murphy) continues to have a wonderful year which is fast coming to an end. She will return to Australia in January when Tess Kadaoui will depart for her exchange year in Denmark.
Fiji Schoolies Project: We have 10 confirmed students (7 girls and 3 boys). These comprise 5 local students and 5 inbound Rotary exchange students. We initially had more local applicants, but some withdrew putting the program at risk for this year. We were given permission by the district youth exchange committee to offer the program to inbounds, subject to usual club and parent permissions. This resulted in 5 inbounds applying. Kellie and I will chaperone together with 1 Rotex (ex Rotary exchange student). Flights and accommodation all booked. We depart on 26th November and return on 6th December.
Exchange Student
Our new exchange student, Katrine Lundsgaard, has arrived from Denmark 24 July 2017. We are hoping to see her at this week’s meeting.