Rotary Youth Exchange
Posted by Bill Baer
on May 12, 2016
The program was started off by Joe Ramirez explaining the Rotary Youth Exchange (RYE) program which was started in 1929 as a way for Rotary International to increase its focus on youth. The purpose is to expose these young people to other cultures, to have them act as an ambassador of their home country and to grow personally. He reminded us that his Son was an RYE student that we sponsored about 5 years ago to go to Ecuador and that is how Joe became a member of our club. Our club has sponsored RYE students for years and he wanted to thank the membership for being a host club and to thank those that have served as host families.
Jaime Bendala did a presentation for us using photos of his experience. He made the statement that he believes life began on 8/24/15 when he arrived in the USA. He had made the decision to do the RYE program because he believes “you are no one without experiencing new things, exposing yourself to new cultures and new languages”. He noted that starting school in a new school of 3700 people not knowing anyone was a little scary but he soon met many “awesome people” and began to feel at home. He said that he has met new nice people every day of the 256 days that he has been here. He thinks that RYE is a great way of helping people to grow smarter, discover themselves and try new experiences. He has made fantastic friends through school and with the other RYE students. He stated that he now has 4 families not just one. He has his birth family, his host families and his RYE family. He introduced his host sister Anna (Saviage) who is an outbound RYE student and will be going to Spain this next year. He asked her to say a few words.
Anna expressed her excitement about her upcoming trip. She was given our club flags to take to her first meetings in Spain and, as is tradition, all of the other RYE students pinned their special pins representing their countries on Anna’s blazer. We will look forward to hearing how her trip goes when she’s back! They then showed us (in exchange for the bribery cost of frozen yogurt) their secret RYE handshake. It was very fun.
Jaime showed great pictures of his adventures here and let us in on the fact that he and Jeff now have a secret recipe for paella (so we can be expecting Jeff to make that for an upcoming meeting…right Jeff?). He showed pictures of working on the Rose Parade float and working with Joe (or should I say “Joey”) at Oktoberfest. Jeff, Dave and Joe presented him with a Paul Harris award and he responded by thanking the club and stating “I WILL be a Rotarian”.
Jaime has plans to attend college in another country, possibly France, and study mechanical engineering. He would like to work in the automotive industry on electric cars and electric innovation. Possibly the most poignant thing that was said by this amazing young man was this, “I think the point is to leave the world a better place than when you came to it.”
We wish Jaime all of the success in the world and hope he stays in touch!