Rotary Club of Walla Walla News - Release May 21, 2018

Local Walla Walla High School junior, Hana Bobrow-Strain has wanted to undertake an academic exchange since she was 11years old. This 2017-18 year she has been on a Rotary Youth Exchange (RYE) program in Italy. She is sponsored by Walla Walla Noon Rotary and Rotary International. Although the local Rotary club has sponsored several academic-year exchanges for international youth in recent years, Hana is the first local student to be selected to attend a school year abroad for some time.

Rotary International began the RYE program in 1929 to enable young people to experience the world and learn new cultures. Approximately 9,000 currently are involved in the program worldwide each year. Students normally stay a full academic year with several host families. However, there are also short-term exchanges programs.

Hana was not familiar with Rotary’s commitment to youth exchange until she “stumbled” upon it while reading blogs of exchange students. “I was drawn to Rotary because of the emphasis on service and being part of a larger community dedicated to building relationships between people of different backgrounds and cultures,” noted Bobrow-Strain. She did not delay in submitting an application for consideration to Rotary. She remarked that local Rotarian David Lindstrom, RYE club committee chair, was very helpful through the entire application process.

Having her parents instill in her an interest in international cultures through travel experiences set a foundation for Hana’s quest to have a high school academic exchange in a country which she did not know the language and had never travelled. Her top country of choice was Italy. She was excited to be selected to have her exchange there.

Knowing that learning other languages pays off in future life, Hana’s started learning Spanish at Green Park Elementary School. Her love of languages, and adeptness, is apparent since all her current high school classes in Italy are in Italian. She feels that an experience like a youth exchange is the best way to learn a language.

There exist many differences between the Italian and US educational systems. In Italy the direction of future learning is chosen by students at the end of middle school. In the classroom setting, the teachers move to different rooms as the students stay in one location. Hana reported that the grading system is much more rigorous with both written and oral examinations. In comparison to Walla Walla High School, the school in Italy has less access to technology and fewer opportunities to participate in science labs and extracurricular activities. She was pleased to find in Italy the school days shorter but disappointed to learn that Saturdays are also school days in Italy.

Living in the city of Naples for the academic year has made Hana very grateful for her exchange location. “Neapolitans are friendly; willing to explain sayings from the local language; and are concerned about whether you’re being fed enough by your host families,” explained Hana. The history of the area is ancient and impressive to her. It is a life built between the sea and Mt. Vesuvius.

Hana cites the assistance of other Rotary Youth Exchange students in keeping her focused through some challenges inherit with being away from home and immersed into an unfamiliar culture and language. The students provide a supportive network both in person and through social media. RYE students have an in-depth orientation in September and smaller meetings throughout the year. In June she will travel around Europe with other RYE students for a week.

Highlighting her personal development through the experience of the exchange, Hana states that she is more flexible, independent, and capable of dealing with new situations. Her interpersonal skills have expanded through the numerous people she has met. She realizes that her experiences she has had would not have been possible without the support of the Walla Walla Noon Rotary and the Rotary Youth Exchange program. “It has opened my eyes to all of the possibilities there are and how many similarities there can be between you and people who seem so different from you at first,” commented Hana.

When she returns to Walla Walla this summer, her focus will be on reconnecting with family and friends; volunteering in the community; and sharing her experiences as an exchange student with area Rotary clubs. Hana will also start the college application process as she begins her senior year at Walla Walla High School this fall.

To ensure the success of future youth exchanges, clubs rely on the support of host families. People interested in learning more about becoming a qualified host family to a Rotary Youth Exchange student, may contact Rotarian David Lindstrom at david.lindstrom@wallawalla.edu for information.

Walla Walla Noon Rotary Club meets at 11:45 a.m. Thursdays for lunch and community interest programs at The Marcus Whitman Hotel & Conference Center, 6 W. Rose St. For more details, contact Pam Cress at Pam.Cress@wallawalla.edu or 509-301-2199 or online see ubne.ws/2qPsr6T or on Facebook ubne.ws/2q4sj6a#

News release contact: Maryann Cole, 525-2849. Attached photos: Hana with host family, (seated third from left). City of Amalfi, Italy (near Naples); Hana (head shot)

Thursday the 21st is "World Humanist" Day 

”“Being a Humanist means trying to behave decently without expectation of rewards or punishment after you are dead.”
~ Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

There is a philosophy of belief that indicates that humanity is more than just the puppets of some divine being or subject to a list of metaphysical oddities and creatures with their own designs. Instead, humanism believes that we are whole in and of ourselves and that our good behavior and civility is not reliant on anything except a true and honest desire to be decent people. Most of all this philosophy raises the importance of personal responsibility, if we behave as monsters, it is we who are monsters, there is no “The Devil Made Me Do It”. World Humanist Day celebrates this ideology and those who practice it, bringing reason and science to the world of faith and irrationality.

History of World Humanist Day

Celebrated on the day of the June solstice, World Humanist Day is a coming together of organizations and individuals which value science and rationalism over divinity and the supernatural. Created during the 1980s by people affiliated to American Humanist Association, the day is regarded as the only holiday for free thought in the world. In recent years, it has grown rapidly and even received television coverage in some nations.

The way in which it is celebrated differs greatly from country to country, with some groups hosting parties and others favoring conferences and activism. The main point of World Humanist Day is to try and make the world a better place by increasing the public’s knowledge of scientific methods in hope that it will dispel many age-old myths. Well-known supporters of World Humanist Day include the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, best-selling author Phillip Pullman, the philosopher AC Grayling and the comedian Tim Minchin.

The first and best way to celebrate World Humanist Day is to contemplate your own agency as a human being. What drives your choices and makes you be a decent person? Is it a fear that you’ll be punished by some higher power? Are you pursuing some great gift in the afterlife and this is what keeps you from murdering people and being deceitful? Or is it simply that to behave in a way that treats other people with decency and respect is enough and in fact the best, motivation we need? World Humanist Day encourages you to ask these questions and take some time to help your fellow man.