At our June 6 club meeting, Bill Kempiners introduced us to Cindie Carmen Correa (image above). She is the second Rotary Outbound Youth Exchange student that our club is sponsoring for 2022-2023. Carmen is a 16 year old Springfield High School student with great poise and enthusiasm for educational experiences and world travel. She recently attended the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards program with a friend, where she heard about the opportunity to be an outbound exchange student. On the bus back from RYLA, she initiated her application to be an exchange student. Her application was approved at record speed. In August, she will head to western Germany where she will live with a German host family and attend a school comparable to a U.S. high school in a town near Cologne. She is co-sponsored by a German Rotary Club and will have opportunities to interact with them.
Dave Fowler, representing the Springfield Rotary Foundation Board, presented her with a Bellatti Kincaid Youth Exchange Scholarship certificate and check to help her with expenses. Our club's foundation manages the Bellatti Kincaid Fund, which helps support inbound and outbound students participating in the Central States Rotary Youth Exchange Program. This summer, Carmen is busy preparing for her trip and taking a crash course in German and is excited to participate in the Rotary Youth Exchange Program. It was wonderful to have the opportunity to meet and hear her thoughts on benefits of this opportunity.