I want to share a story with Rotary District 6290. I am from Elk Rapids, MI, and spent 2006-07 in Taiwan as a Rotary exchange student representing District 6290. My exchange year was wonderful and completely life-changing.
Earlier this year, I was hired into the Foreign Service. During orientation, I was given the opportunity to rank the available posts by my order of preference. I was assigned to Shanghai, China, in our "Flag Day" ceremony, a process that felt very similar to being assigned a host country in the RYE program. I found out that one of my colleagues in my State Department orientation class was also a former Rotary exchange student, and we both agreed that we have Rotary to thank for launching us on the roads that led us here. In honor of Rotary's role in our paths to the Foreign Service, and because so many elements of becoming foreign service officers reminds us of being Rotary exchange students, we brought our Rotary blazers to our Flag Day ceremony for photos.
I have attached two photos:
1) Myself in Taiwan in 2006
2) A photo from Flag Day this month, of me with two others:
- Robin (A former RYE student from District 6690 who is headed to Monterey, Mexico, to serve in the US consulate), and
- Laura (A former inbound RYE student from Venezuela who spent her exchange year in Elk Rapids. My family was her first host family, and we have been sisters ever since. She now lives in Washington, DC)
Thanks to you and everyone at District 6290 for continuing to promote cultural exchange.
Cheers
Kara
