Last Tuesday the Risers were treated to a presentation by our returning RYLA students and two of our short term youth exchange program students.
Representing RYLA, where Rachel Zhang and Jenny Rosas. Both students are upcoming seniors at Mayo high school. Both of them left with a shared appreciation for Rotary and the tremendous leadership experience they gained described as life changing. Both Dean and Joanne shared transportation responsibilities for getting the students returned from camp and saw first hand how much they both enjoyed and benefited from RYLA.
We also heard a short presentation from the two students participating in the short term youth exchange program (STEP). While most Risers are familiar with Youth Exchange (YE) that involves hosting an inbound student from another country as well as sending an outbound student for the school year to another country, STEP is a much different youth program. It involves two students (one who is a local student and a student from another country) who spend approximately one month in each other’s home during summer. Katelyn Seigel: (KJ) from Rochester, who attends John Marshall, was the local student who traveled to Taiwan to stay wtih Selina and her family. These young women became good friends and enjoyed sharing special characteristics from their respective country. Interestingly, KJ had previously been a YE student spending her year in Germany. And, Selina had also been a YE student previously in Brazil. These experiences speak to the value students gain when they have an opportunity to live in another country. KJ wanted the Risers to know how much she appreciates the support she’s received from Rotary having first experienced it while in the STRIVE program.