An exchange student from Kanagawa, Japan continues to adjust to her stay in the Athabasca area after first arriving in August.
Seventeen-year-old Megumi Suzuki is the inbound student for the Athabasca Rotary Club’s Youth Exchange Program for 2019-20, and is currently attending Grade 11 at Edwin Parr Composite School.
Suzuki said so far, she really enjoys being in the Athabasca area.
“Where I come from, there are lots of tall buildings. But in this area, there is lots of space to relax,” she explained. “The people here have been really nice to me, and I also get to hang out with some of the friends I met at EPC.”
She added she recently made the basketball team over at the school.
“They do not play or watch much basketball in Japan,” Suzuki said. “I have always had an interest in the sport, so I tried out for the team and got in.”
Outside of school, she is also a part of the Athabasca Community Handbell Choir that practices out of the Athabasca United Church.
“They do not have this where I come from either,” Suzuki said. “I hope to maybe introduce this type of music when I return to Japan.”
During the course of her stay in the community, she will stay with four host families to learn more about Canadian culture.
Suzuki has been with her current host parents, Brian and Jennifer Scott, since the middle of November.
“We will probably have her over for about two-and-a-half months,” Brian Scott said. “We took her about 3,225 kilometres during fall break and showed her the sights and sounds of Alberta and British Columbia. I would say she really enjoyed it.”
“We went to Vancouver, where I got to see White Rock, Gas Town and Stanley Park and I also got to ride the sea bus,” Suzuki added. “I also attended a Rotary Club convention in Grande Prairie, and I got to see the West Edmonton Mall and down to Red Deer as well.”
She said a Canadian exchange student from Victoria, B.C. was what first encouraged her to try to come across the Pacific.
“She was staying with my family in Kanagawa,” Suzuki continued. “She told me so many wonderful things about Canada, including the people and the landscapes. I wanted to see it all for myself.”
Rotary Youth Exchange Program
Longtime member Dan Dennis said the Athabasca Rotary Club hosted their first inbound exchange student back in 1988.
“He was from Australia,” Dennis said. “He lives in London, England now and he still maintains contact with some of our members and even comes by to visit once in a while.”
He added that each year since the Youth Exchange Program was founded back in 1946, about 9,000 students are on exchange with Rotary International.
“It’s done on a district-by-district basis, and each individual chooses an outbound student to send abroad, and in turn we receive an inbound student,” Dennis continued. “In our district, there are about 60 Rotary Clubs but only about 12 clubs are participating.”
This year’s 2019-20 outbound student from the Athabasca Rotary Club is Jacob Kociuba.
“Kociuba is spending the year up in northern Italy this year,” Dennis said. “In exchange, we had Megumi come to us as our inbound student from Japan.”
While he’s not acting as a host parent for this year, he has done so in the past.
“We have hosted about nine or so students in the past,” Dennis continued. “We’ve had lots of great memories from inbound students over the last 20-30 years, and we still keep in contact with lots of them.”
He said for this year’s outbound student, the cost was about $7,250.
“It covers airfare, foreign visas, insurance and language training,” Dennis added. “The biggest cost has normally been airfare, and that has continued to increase over the years. The club covers half of the cost, while the other half is covered by the student.”
Dennis said the applicants tell them which countries they would prefer to go to.
“We tell them which countries we are exchanging with, and they tell us what their preferences are,” he said. “They then spend about 10 months preparing for their new culture, including language training. Each applicant must be 16-years-old when they leave, and they can not turn 18-years-old before they leave.”
As for Suzuki, she said she hopes to meet as many people as possible.
“I hope to have lots of friends here during my stay in this area,” she said.
