This newsletter covers highlights from the last meeting in December 2024. We met Tracy Thibodeaux the Youth Exchange Program candidate and the host family for an inbound student. The next edition will bring us into the new year with new adventures for Ely Rotary.
Announcements
District 5580 January issue of "Cross Currents" includes an article about the Ely Rotary water station during the Ely Marathon and welcoming Joe Weise.
Thank you to Craig Loughery and Tom Moore for their submissions. The picture is of Susan Polege participating in the "Lumber Jills" a team of ladies that carried a canoe the full length of the marathon. Mike Murray of the Ely Club ran the half marathon.
Craig Loughery won the chance to draw a card for the 50/50 drawing. He did not win so the pot goes on to the next meeting.
Speakers - Tracy Thibodeaux, John Townsend, Christine Kolinski, Carl Skustad and daughter Carmen
The December 18th speakers included:
Tracy Thibodeaux, Youth Exchange student who will be traveling next school year or the outbound student
John Townsend, Ely High School School Counselor
Christine Kolinski, Carl Skustad and daughter Carmen potential host family for inbound Youth Exchange Student
Susan Polege introduced our guests to meet and greet the Rotary Club members who will be supporting them through the Youth Exchange experience.
Tracy's highlights:
Born in Colorado.
High school sophomore.
Learned that there are opportunities to travel abroad for a year.
Created a powerpoint for her parents to express her interest in this opportunity.
Parents suggested she wait until she get back from a trip to Scotland to be sure she enjoys international travel.
Tracy describes staying on castle grounds and meeting people from around the world as magical. She attended through Scouts of America and stayed for 3 weeks. The last week was spent touring.
Self described as a very social person, she loves meeting new people.
Wants to go into politics or be a diplomat and the experience of living in another country would be helpful.
Already met students from Taiwan, Austria and Denmark when she attended the district interview in Fargo.
Top choices are Spain (Spanish teacher is a big influence on her love of the Spanish culture), Austria and Denmark. The students she met infuenced her choices.
Learning about the culture and learning a new language is important to her.
Tracy will be attending the District Conference in Fergus Falls in April. There are five inbound students in our district.
She celebrated a birthday recently. Cupcakes were provided at the meeting in her honor and we sang her Happy Birthday.
Tracy is an enthusiastic student who presents herself as poised and ready for the Youth Exchange Program. There are a few steps left for the process. Stay tuned for updates.
John Townsend, Christine Kosinski, Carl Skustad and Carmen
John Townsend:
School counselor for 10 years.
Works closely with the exchange students to make the program work.
Students come for the experience and are not aways able to transfer the credits to their transcripts, but we try to accommodate them so they can graduate with their class.
It is fun to be able to represent our country, state, community and school.
Ambassadors are welcome to offer their skills to share with inbound students in support of the host family whether it be a social skill like fishing or having a job like fireman or a business to share an experience with an exchange student.
The Ely students are welcoming and accepting of others who come to our school.
The school appreciates Rotary's efforts in support of students and all that Mike has done championing for students.
Carl Skustad:
Carl works for the Forest Service.
The family has traveled internationally extensively.
We have family and friends who have hosted exchange students.
Very active with the ski team.
Christine Kosinski:
Also works for the Forest Service out of the Duluth office. They live in Ely.
They have four children, two 15 year olds and two 18 year olds. Carmen is the second from oldest.
Most recently the family traveled to Europe and Sri Lanka.
Kids are interested in studying abroad and looking forward to the potential for an exchange student in their family.
Carmen:
Senior in high school.
She will be at college and is giving up her room for the exchange student. (Giggles)
She hopes to study abroad while in college.
President Tom Moore comments:
This is exciting for our club getting back into the Youth Exchange Program after Covid. It is a celebration of Tracy for with her expression of interest. It is great to put names with faces.
Thank you to all of you here today and also to Rotary International. There are Rotary Clubs in over 200 countries in the world and a prime objective is promoting world peace. How better to contribute than to exchange people, learn about different cultures and make friends to help us all get along better.
Thank you for all of your efforts to make this happen and supporting the Rotary Youth Exchange opportunity.
Note: The club is still hoping to have one or two more host families involved with the inbound student. Please let Susan know if you know of someone who may be interested.
Thank you to Tracy, John, Carl, Christine and Carmen for coming to meet our members and introducing yourselves. Thank you to Susan for leading the effort. Let us know what we can do to help in any way.
“To meet up with my classmates and host families after 50 years has been simply amazing. Through Rotary Youth Exchange I had such a precious chance and a fabulous experience. Thank you.”