Ely High School launched Tracy Thibodeaux to a year abroad in Italy while welcoming Piotr Ilnicki of Gorzow, Poland in her place, all thanks to sponsorship from the Rotary Youth Exchange Program.
The program runs throughout the entire academic year, with students attending high school in the locale of their placement.
Though Thibodeaux said an exchange might be “such a scary thing to think about” while filling out the application, spending a year abroad “is going to be the best experience of anybody’s life.”
Since arriving in early September, Thibodeaux has developed her Italian skills and visited sites around the country, and she will partake in a two week tour of Europe run by an organization working with Rotary at the end of her exchange. Her host family also brought her on an additional trip to Spain as a birthday gift. “I truly won the lottery with my host family,” Thibodeaux said. “They are so welcoming. They painted a room in their house pink for me because I told them that was my favorite color,” Thibodeaux continued.
Ilnicki, who arrived in Minnesota in late August, said his key motivator for applying was “visiting the United States.”
He has gotten involved with basketball and Knowledge Bowl Club in Ely while spending time with new peers and connections. Adapting to social life in a new country “wasn’t really much of a problem” for Ilnicki.
“We all have the same social media,” Ilnicki said, “We all speak the same slang.”
The host family experience has also been a positive one for Ilnicki.
“I probably got the best host family I could ever wish for, and I love them so much with all my heart,” Ilnicki said.
The Rotary model is to place students with multiple host families to grant them a broad slate of experiences, but the Ely Rotary Club ran into “difficulty” locating local households willing to welcome an exchange student this year, wrote local Youth Exchange Program Coordinator Susan Polege.
“We especially want to hear from students who are potentially interested in going on exchange for an academic year in high school ages 14.5-18.5, and we want to hear from potential host families,” Polege wrote.
Polege said those with an interest in the Youth Exchange program may reach out to her via phone at (715) 615-2414 or by email at susanpolege@ gmail.com.
“I’ve always been quite open-minded and down to earth, but this has definitely shown me that I can do hard things,” Thibodeaux said of her experience in Italy, “I think that a lesson that everybody needs to learn is that really, if you set your mind to something, you can do it.”
Thibodeaux said the experience has proved to her that she “will probably live outside of the U.S.” again at some point in her life. Anyone interested in going on an exchange should “do it.”
Ilnicki also encourages students who may be hesitant about applying.
“Exchanges are something that are worth trying, even if you’re a bit afraid,” Ilnicki said.
“If somebody came to me a year and a half ago and told me, ‘Hey, in a year and a half, you’ll be playing basketball in American high school in Northern Minnesota,’ I would say that guy should meet a doctor,” Ilnicki said, “I wouldn’t think I would ever do this, but now I’m doing this, and it’s amazing. That’s the only way to describe it.”
