Rotary exchange program hosting students from across the world

WASILLA — There are currently three Rotary Exchange students in the Mat-Su Valley, Arnaud Bollens from Belgium, JO “Sally” YuJin from South Korea, and Natali Bonadio from Brazil. The three of them are divided to three different High Schools, Bollens in Wasilla High School, YuJin in Susitna Valley High School, and Bonadio in Palmer High School.

The international service club has several roots throughout the community, with people young and old volunteering their time and efforts for the “service to mankind.”

Cultural exchange goes “hand in hand” with Rotary’s overall mission, according to Wasilla Sunrise President, Janet Kennedy, whose housed countless international high school students with her husband Dan for over 18 years.

“We’ve always been very interested in international exchange with our children. We wanted them to know that there’s other cultures out there. Our children were very young when we had our first exchange student, Thomas Chave, from France,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy’s son David travelled to Mexico a few years ago. She said these types of experiences help children “grow and change.”

“They come back with so much more experience... They develop and attitude of there are other people out there,” she said.

Each Rotary exchange student creates and showcases educational presentations based on their country of origin.

“Essentially, these students come here as ambassadors, as representatives for their country,” Kennedy said.

For the growing generation of Valley students, Kennedy recommends immersing with the exchange students that are here; each year with another chance to learn about another culture.

She said that Susitna Rotary still plans to focus on one student at a time, each year since it suits them best. She mentioned that the Palmer Rotary club is considering adding an additional student to their annual roster.

This article is the first of three total stories, profiling each 2018 exchange student across the Valley.

2018 Exchange Student Spotlight: Arnaud Bollens (Belgium)

Bollens, 17, has been in Alaska for a month-a-half. He was born in Southern Belgium to his mother a Belgium native and his father, who moved there when he was two. Bollens’ first and primary language is French, the predominant language in Southern Belgium. To the north, most everyone speaks Flemish, a language created by the Dutch which is essentially a combination of French and Dutch, Bollens said.

He only knows a few Flemish words. He said that Belgium’s overall culture is essentially the same but the north and south are basically split down the middle by language. It is one of the three national languages of Belgium, together with French and German.

He speaks fairly fluent English, with the ultimate goal of mastering one of the world’s most common languages.

"It's a global language," Bollens said.

He said that his mother really wanted him to perfect English. After looking through several exchange program options, Bollens said that he and his mother found Rotary International and it proved to be the most affordable and enriching experience.

Here in Alaska, he said it felt like “everything seems bigger” to Bollens. He laughed and said that Belgium was a lot smaller, “maybe a little bigger than Kodiak,” Belgium with it’s 11 million people covering an area just over 30,500 square kilometers and Alaska with just over 663,200 square miles and well under 800,000 people.

This is not the same country,” he laughed. “You have the sensation that everything is big, everything in Alaska.”

During his interview, he was wearing a blue blazer, covered with button, top to bottom from various places he's been and from people he's met, including a Rotary International button near the base of his right side pocket.

Bollens said that Belgians eat “a lot of potatoes” and have the “best chocolate in the world.” If Bollens took you out to eat back home he would recommend Belgium waffles for breakfast, “Frite” for lunch (Frite is what we call our French Fries and apparently topic of debate, with both French and Belgium claiming they invented the diverse yet iconic side dish), and chocolate pie for desert.

After high school?

"I'll go to college... something to do with science. I still need to think about it," he laughed.