Why I Want to Be a Rotary Foreign Exchange Student

After the Outbound Orientation on May 11th, all of the outbounds were given the option to write an essay on why he or she wants to be a Rotary foreign exchange student and submit it to a committee. The winning essay would receive $100 to help to fund their exchange.
I was very excited to find that my essay was chosen to win $100 and tomorrow I will read it at the Rotary District Conference in Midway, Utah! It was such a blessing and an honor to be able to win this award!
I copied my essay below.

Why I Want to Be a Foreign Exchange Student

            I have gone to school for fourteen years including preschool. Schools in the United States teach students to get the answers right to get into the best colleges. This has been my goal since I was very young. I am competitive each year at school and I work hard to get the best test scores and be at the top of my class. But as I consider my future detached from my parents in college, my career objective, and my dream to become a wife and mother, I have realized that I may have “book smarts”, but I am lacking necessary diverse experiences that would allow me to become the well-rounded young women I aspire to be. I am a great test taker and know how to get an A in my classes. But do I really know anything about the world? I have experienced very little of what is really out there. I am realizing that there is a lot more to life than math homework, history exams and the ACT. How will I be able to teach my children about the world if I have never known anything except South Jordan, Utah? It is also getting harder to find a good career out in the job market since highly educated young people with PH.D’s and straight A’s have never really lived outside of their text books. The creativity they were born with has been educated out of them. The careers these students have prepared, studied and worked for are often turned over to people overseas who have the education and the creativity for the job. I don’t want that to happen to me. I have decided to jump into the real world.

            Just one half of one percent of American teenagers go on a foreign exchange and I am thrilled to be one of them. When I first decided that being an exchange student was something I wanted to do, my Spanish teacher recommended Rotary because it had the best price. I did not research any other option. I didn’t need to. As I have learned more about Rotary I have come to learn how blessed I am to have the opportunity to be a part of the Rotary organization. A large amount the 0.05% of high school students who go on exchange, go because they think it will be an opportunity to vacation for a year to party and drink far away from the eyes of their parents. Those exchanges have no meaning and can have disastrous consequences.  Rotary requires its exchange students to obey the “Four D’s” which include refraining from drinking alcohol, driving, steady dating, and drugs. Rotary students who obey these rules are able to get the most out of their exchanges by keeping focused and safe. Instead of going on a foreign exchange to have a wild vacation for a year, Rotary exchange students return with honor knowing that they learned more and experienced more of the culture than many other students.

            My favorite aspect of the Rotary Organization is its focus on service. When I’m driving to school and a commercial for Rotary is played on the radio describing its goal to eradicate Polio from the world, I feel a sense of pride. I know I am part of something important and very good. From experience I know that service is the most effective way to make me happy. As a Rotary ambassador in a foreign country I have an obligation to serve others. I can think of no greater responsibility and honor than to serve the world in any way I can. I know that my hands are small and I cannot change the world single-handedly in one year, but with the help of an incredible organization with millions of members, I can achieve my goals and extend a helping, loving hand to the nations.

            Some days I wonder how I can have the courage to go on a foreign exchange. It’s daunting to imagine that in only a few months I will be thousands of miles from home in an unfamiliar place and with a foreign language to learn. My exchange is going to be extremely difficult as most exchanges are, however I know that I can do hard things. I have faith that if I can forget myself and think about my host family, my friends at my new school, and the members of my community and how I will be able to make their days a little better, I will make the most out of my exchange and have a wonderful time. From experience I found that focusing inward only results in despair and feelings of inadequacy. I have lofty goals for my exchange including teaching about my culture in America, my religion, and sharing my talents in music. Though I want to be able to make a significant difference in my host country of Brazil, I realize that I will not be able to change it, nor do I want to. I hope to be molded into an independent, educated, cultured, and capable young woman. Without being placed under intense heat and pressure I will never become the diamond I want to be someday. This is why I am voluntarily throwing myself into the fire to come out polished as a unique gem the world has never seen.