The Rotary Club of Medicine Hat welcomed our NGSE (New Generations Service Exchange) Participant to the meeting today. Juliana Nishitani is 22 and a resident of Sao Paulo, Brazil. She was introduced to the club by our local NGSE leader Edward Lipin, who began the meeting by speaking a bit about the idea of a "virtual" exchange. He also introduced the NGSE program lead for District 4420, Sao Paulo who was with us as well and it was great to see Jany Hatanaka again at our meeting.
Juliana (who's nickname is Juba) spoke a little bit about the amazing difference for her in the size of the communities, Sao Paulo has over 12 million citizens. She introduced her family and spoke about her experience as a scout and ballet dancer when she was young. She also spent four months during high school on a student exchange in Barcelona, Spain. She has obtained a bachelors degree in business, and concentrated on marketing and entrepreneurship. She also loves to travel. She started a small business herself, dealing with clothing within her community but it was affected by the pandemic lockdown and she has suspended it's activities.
Although Medicine Hat is small, it certainly appealed to her and she would dearly love to travel north to visit with us in the future. She was complemented on her English language skills and spoke about the emphasis on English during her schooling. After her presentation, she was asked and answered a number of questions, and Edward explained the balance of her "virtual" trip to Canada, which has about 7 weeks to run.
Juba was thanked by President Mark, who spent time with her reviewing the operations in their office last week. He confirmed the invitation to visit us in the future when travel is practical. Margie Booyens, who is the District 5360 NGSE lead, reminded members that other districts are looking for 18 - 30 year old individualas who are looking for a travel and educational experience. She hopes to have a candidate for a return visit in the future.
Thanks for the presentation Juliana, we wish you all the best in your experience with NGSE and in your future endeavours.