Youth from France gaining knowledge in Portage
She was seen at the Portage Community Revitalization Corporation annual general meeting on Friday as she is also interning with the PCRC.
"I have been doing an internship at City Hall and I spent two days at the PCU Centre," said the 19 year old. "I have been spending a day at the planning district, four days at the community and regional planning (department). And I am spending two weeks with the PCRC (Portage Community Revitalization Corporation).
"I have been seeing all those different organizations, seeing how they work," said Bourgois. "People have been really awesome to me, showing me what they do and taking time to show me everything about urban planning, because that is what I am studying back in France -- urban planning and social classes."
The university student previously visited Portage la Prairie four years ago as a Rotary exchange student.
The social aspect of her work as an intern now especially interests Bourgois.
While working with PCRC, for example, the youth said she appreciates how the agency does many things to help the community.
"It's a great spirit; I enjoy that," she said. "I wonder how it works back in France."
While in Portage, Bourgois is visiting the host families she stayed with during her last visit.
"It's like being an exchange student again, but being grown up, and seeing everything with adult's eyes," she said.
Portage la Prairie is now like a second home to the youth, who has fond memories of her last trip here.
Meeting people in the street she already knows is also an experience she appreciates about living in Portage.
"Portage is such a small community," said Bourgois. "We know everybody and it feels like I have never left."
The youth arrived in Portage in May and returns to France next week.
While she doesn't know what will happen in the future, Bourgois said she would like to return to Portage again someday.
Bourgois is from a community located just south of Paris.
Portage la Prairie's Mayor Earl Porter said it is good to see the former Rotary youth returning to Portage to continue her learning experience.
"She is fortunate enough to come back here and work for nothing," he said. "She is going to university now; she is taking those kinds of programs for her future.
"To come here and have a look to see how we do things is a great opportunity for her," Porter added, "It is a great opportunity for us to have somebody with different ideas. It worked out really good."
Story courtesy of Angela Brown, The Daily Graphic.