It wasn’t all that long ago that Maria Lepore Araujo thought she would be content to stick close to home.
Home for Lepore Araujo is Santa Fe do Sul, a small city of a little more that 32,000 residents — and a popular tourist destination — located about 650 kilometres from Sao Paulo in Sao Paolo State, Brazil.
She joined her local Rotary’s Interact Club at the high school she was attending and later found out about the student exchange program. Rotary Interact Clubs — there is one in Pelham at E.L. Crossley Secondary School — help youth ages 13 to 18 develop leadership skills through service to the community.
The Rotary Youth Exchange is an international exchange program open to youth from 15 to 18 years old who wish to spend up to a year living with host families abroad and attending school in a different country.
“Before I came here, I didn't think about it,” Lepore Araujo, 17, said. “I was like, I’ll go live in my city and just that, but now I want to know about other countries.”
Out of all the places she could go, she chose Canada. Her reasons were simple.
“I think maybe the snow,” she said. “It’s like magic.”
She got her first taste of the white stuff on a trip to Michigan last weekend. Now that she’s seen some, the “magic” might be wearing off.
“I think maybe, like, one month will be good, but after that, I think ….”
Lepore Araujo’s words trailed off as she began to laugh.
It has been an adjustment for Lepore Araujo, who has been in Canada since August. She had to brush up on her English quickly before starting Grade 11 at Crossley.
But language aside, there was also the matter of just when she would attend school. In the southern hemisphere, its currently summer in Brazil, a time she’d normally be on holiday. Her classes also started – and finished – earlier.
“In Brazil, we get to school at seven, and we [go home] at 12:30,” she said. “Here I go to school at eight, and I arrive [home] at two o’clock. The year of the school, too, is different, because we start in February, and we finish in November.”
For students in the exchange program, there are plenty of challenges beyond simply being away from home. It can be physically and emotionally taxing, said Mike Taylor, the youth exchange officer for the Rotary Club of Fonthill.
They are trying to translate all day long. It’s physically exhausting
“It would be not just a matter of school,” he said. “There would also be the language. The process for kids coming in on exchange is they are trying to translate all day long. It’s physically exhausting.”
But her stay in hasn’t been all about school and work for Lepore Araujo. There has been some time for play as her host family have been showing her around Niagara and beyond.
“They always are trying to do something with me,” she said. “I went to Michigan. I went to St Catharines first to see a hockey game, then go to the movie theater.”
Seeing the Niagara IceDogs in action was the first time she had seen a hockey game and she enjoyed the experience.
“It was fun,” she said. “[My host family] explained it a little bit but for me, it's kind of like soccer.”
Taylor, meanwhile, said exchange students from various clubs in District 7090, which takes in southern Ontario and Western New York State, and of which the Fonthill group is a part, will get together regularly for outings.
“All the exchange kids in our district somewhat routinely get together for weekend events sponsored by the district,” Taylor said. “They have a weekend in Buffalo coming up and on Saturday all of them are going to get to go to the Buffalo Sabers game.”
He added that Maria has seen an interesting twist in her Rotary journey.
“She had been so involved and engaged in Interact and the activities that they’ve done, that she actually inspired her mother to become a member of Rotary,” Taylor said. “Usually, it’s the Rotary member who gets someone involved in the youth exchange but this time, it's the youth exchange student who kicked her mom into gear to go to the club itself.”
Now she and her mom have something they can share, Lepore Araujo said.
“For her was a new thing. But for me, was not,” she said. “She liked the meetings, and she liked to talk, and like having ideas and she really liked to help, so she just joined.”
Lepore Araujo will be in Pelham until the end of the school year next June.
More information about the Rotary Club of Fonthill can be found at rotarycluboffonthill.ca while information on the student exchange program can be found at rye7090.org
