Youth Service - Youth Exchange

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Applications are received for Youth Exchange in February/March for the following January.  Typical applicants are current Year 12 students, who will complete their HSC in 2008, and would like to be an exchange student in the following year (2009).

Our Club tries to sponsor one outbound exchange student and one in-bound exchange student each year.  If you or someone you know is interested in taking part in the Youth Exchange experience, please let us know! 

There's no complicated form to complete (at least at first!).  Just send a letter  to: 

Youth Director

St Ives Rotary Club

PO Box 113

St Ives, NSW 2075

The letter should contain basic information about you, where you are attending school, why you are interested in Youth Exchange, and what countries are of most interest to you. 

For information on Rotary Youth Exchange in District 9680 click on this link

The club is hosting another student from Brazil for 2010-2011.

Our Inbound student is from Brazil and his name is Mateus Batista Silva who turned 16 on 25 January. Mateus lives in Cruzeiro do Oeste in the state of Parana. His father is a lawyer and his mother a commercial attendee at the local post office. Mateus is a member of the Interact Club.

His first host family is the Somervilles whose daughter Elodie is our Outbound student enroute to Nantes in France. Mateus has been accepted for a one year placement in Year 10 at Turramurra High School.

In July 2009 we hosted Gabriel Serpa.

Gabriel  Serpa arrived in Sydney in January 2009. Gabriel was hosted by the Rotary club of Waitara for six months and will be hosted by our club for the remaining six months.

Gabriel lives in Sao Paulo and is a keen supporter of the local football club.

Gabriel recently returned from the annual Safari which is  always a highlight of the Youth Exchange programme and this year was no exception. On May 13th Gabriel regaled us with his talk on the safari.  The students left Newcastle on the Sunday of the District Conference for three weeks of touring such places as the Great Ocean Road, Coober Pedy,Uluru and the Gold Coast .

The students fossicked for opals and, in the Red Centre they flew over Uluru in a helicopter, rode camels (which Gabriel didn't believe existed in Australia) and visited the Flying Doctor Service. They also had a go at playing the didgeridoo and "playing" with snakes and other reptiles!

Gabriel is 18 and has lived in San Paulo, a city of 15 million people since birth. In his spare time Gabriel likes to play  the guitar, he likes music and  going to the theatre, as well as playing soccer and practicing capoeira, an African-Brazilian art form that combines elements of martial arts, games, music and dance which was created in Brazil.

Gabriel is currentley attending Turramurra High and is being hosted by Paul Wynn from Gladesville Rotary Club. John & Robin Steel were his host parents from October until his return to Brazil in January 2010.

Deirdre Agnew is his club counsellor.

We enjoyed hosting Gabriel and learning about Brazil.

Quote from  a former Youth Exchange Student - Christina

"The year abroad is so different for every student. It is unique and unforgettable, and it is something that could never be fully conveyed in its proper context to anyone. No one can understand what you went through because no one knows the background that you brought to your experience. Similarly, no one can come out of your experience the way you did." 

Outbound Youth Exchange for 2009 is  student Sally Willmott. Sally has recently returned from Brazil. Sally  visited our club on the 10th March 2010 and regaled us with her year as a student abroad.

To find out more about Sally you can go to our Waratah issue 4th March, which can be found in the archives. Sally will be updating us as her year in Brazil progresses, so check out the later editions of our bulletin.

Youth Exchange Inbound for 2008

Youth Exchange Student Doriane from France is welcomed at the airport by John and Robin Steel in July 2008.

Doriane comes from Payrac a small village in the Canton of Payrac in the region of Midi-Pyrenees.

Outbound Youth Exchange Student Michael Steel went to Finland. He left in January 2008 and returned in January 2009.

Michael addressed the club on his return from Finland. Michael had a wonderful time in Finland and is looking forward to returning there in the near future.

 Ed Grey                                                                             Jonathan Gutzeit

 In 2006/2007, the club hosted Johnathon von Gutzeit from Austria and sent a local young student, Edward Grey to Austria.

Students are asked to select three countries they would like to exchange with.

Both Ed and Jonathan are very musical, both had a fantastic journey on Youth Exchange.