Nanaimo and Lantzville’s five Rotary clubs are actively promoting peace and understanding around the world through the international Rotary Youth Exchange program.
This past summer, five students participated in the short term exchange program including Arielle Verhoeks who spent one month hosting a new friend from Finland and then travelled to the Scandanavian country where she spent a month learning about its culture.
Nanaimo clubs have four students spending a year in another country as part of Rotary’s long-term exchange program. The youths live with families, attend school, learn the language and meet other exchange students from all over the world.
Solenn Vogel is in Ecuador, Mackenzie Parker Joyal is in France, Becca Patterson is in Columbia and Melissa Verhoeks is in Denmark.
Exchange students visiting Nanaimo for the next year inlcude Lucas Le Goareguer, from France, and Jibek Nurmambetova, from Kyrgyzstan. The pair are attending Dover Bay Secondary School and will live with three different families during their stay.
Luisa Athade, from Brazil, is living in the Cedar area with two different Rotary families during the year.
For more information on Rotary’s exchange programs, please visit www.rye5020.org or attend an information meeting Wednesday (Sept. 21) at 7 p.m. in the Dover Bay library.