Two local teens will get a taste of European culture when they head out on an international exchange later this month.
Sharoni Mitra and Adelia Rodger, both recent graduates of Tantramar Regional High School, are packing up and getting ready to leave their friends and families behind to take part in the Sackville Rotary Club’s year-long youth exchange program, an experience that both girls anticipate to be fulfilling and rewarding.
“It seemed like such an incredible opportunity,” said Mitra, who will depart for Mende, France on Aug. 25. “I just know it’s going to be life-changing.”
The Rotary youth exchange program got it start about 30 years ago and is designed for young people, between the ages of 16 and 18, to experience a different culture and learn new languages in another country.
During that year, the participants live with several host families and attend local schools.
Robin Walker, chair of Sackville’s youth exchange program, said this year the Rotary is sponsoring two outbound students as well as two inbound students. Mitra will travel to France and Rodger is heading to Switzerland, while Katrine Christensen from Denmark and Pauliina Rintala from Finland arrive in Sackville Aug. 10.
Walker said the two Scandinavian students will live with three host families in the area throughout the year and attend Tantramar Regional High School. They will also attend weekly Rotary meetings and become involved in the community through various other events.
As well, the students will have the opportunity to meet up with other Rotary exchange participants throughout the district for skiing and kayaking trips.
Walker said the exchange program is a life-changing experience for everyone involved, particularly for those students who get the opportunity to visit parts of the world they might otherwise not have been able to see.
“They usually come back with a whole different perspective on life, on who they are and how they view the world around them,” she said.
And Walker knows what she’s talking about; she herself participated in the Rotary program back in 1997-98 and traveled to Sweden on her exchange.
“For me, it really was the start of a passion for learning different languages, experiencing new cultures and meeting new people,” said Walker, who now serves as Mount Allison University’s international affairs coordinator.
Seventeen-year-old Mitra hopes she, too, will return to Sackville next July with a new outlook on life.
“I’m definitely going to go to France with an open mind, ready to embrace all the new experiences and opportunities that are thrown at me,” she said.
Mitra, a classical violinist and pianist, said she feels fortunate that she gets to travel to France, a country where the rich European culture is a predominant force.
“This will give me a chance to check out the European music scene and also to really improve my French,” said the French Immersion graduate.
Mitra, who is working this summer as a tour guide at Sackville’s visitor information centre, will be attending school at Lycée Chaptal, where she hopes to complete a French baccalaureate program equivalent to a first-year university course.
“I’m always up for a challenge.”
And although most of her friends are university-bound this fall, Mitra is getting ready for an education of a different type.
“I don’t get to look forward to Frosh Week this year, I get to look forward to flying over the Atlantic Ocean and living in France.”
Rodger, who is working as a canoeing guide in a camp in Saint John this summer, will be leaving next week for Switzerland.
Her dad Nick said she is looking forward to the trip.
“I think she’s looking to expand her horizons and to experience a different culture.”
The Rotary is still seeking host families from Sackville to take in the two incoming students during a three-month period from April to June 2011. For more information, call Robin Walker at 536-2264.
