Rotary Exchange Program

Visiting Rotary exchange student Lucia De Vito, left, from Fabriano, italy, recently returned students Quinn Ferris who visited Mexico and Kristi Perrin who did her exchange in Belgium, attended the Tuesday regular Rotary meeting where Ferris gave a presentation.

Sharing cultural experience, broadening one’s mind and learning are cornerstones of student exchanges. Quinn Ferris told the Portage la Prairie Rotarians during their luncheon Aug. 25, the exchange they sponsored him on, hit that in spades.

Rotary International, of which there is a vibrant club in Portage has been sending youth on international exchanges since 1929. Each year the service club sponsors approximately 9,000 students internationally to travel and learn a new culture.
Ferris and Kristi Perrin were fortunate students from here in late 2014, to embark on an exchange. Visiting here this year is 17-year-old Lucia De Vito of Fabriano, Italy.

Ferris visited Cozumel, Mexico and Perrin traveled Belgium in Europe.

The young Portager now preparing to leave for university could not praise the exchange program enough for how it has helped him personally. ‘Mi casa, tu casa’ a famous Spanish saying meaning my home is your home, is now a part of his heart.

Bowled over by the shear beauty of Cozumel, home to the world’s second largest reef, Ferris emphasized what he really brought home was a sense of family. He boarded with three Mexican families, each he said are his families he left behind.

“One of the things I was luckiest to have down there was how I felt a part of a family down there,” said Ferris. “I can truly say that I have three families that are in Mexico with parents and other siblings. I didn’t feel that with one family, with all three of my families.

“I was so lucky with the people I got meet and with the local experiences.”.