Student Exchange

Andrew D'Aurora is an Ambassadorial Scholar from District 5950. He is an Edina High School graduate, a graduate from New York University, and was sponsored by our Rotary club.  He recently wrote this letter to us:


Dear Ellen, Dan and Roland,

Please forward the following letter to other local Rotary members; I am short on email addresses. Also, feel free to give out my email if people care to respond with comments or questions about my experience. Thanks so much!

Andrew

Greetings Rotary of Edina and Rotary District 5950,

As you may remember, I am in the midst of a six-month Rotary Cultural Ambassadorial Scholarship program in Merida, Venezuela. I arrived a little over two months ago and wanted to share some of my thoughts and experiences so far. These may perhaps be distilled later into a blog or some other form, but for now I figured it was high time I just sat down to report on the goings-on here without further delay.

My Spanish language course here at the Iowa Institute has been an immense success so far. I've been very fortunate; my professors have been demanding, highly intelligent and personable individuals. I was surprised to discover upon my arrival that I am currently the only Rotary scholar in Venezuela. Generally in the past the number of scholars has differed; during the previous term (January-July 2009) there were four scholars studying together at the Iowa Institute. My unique situation puts me at a tremendous advantage in that I am rarely tempted to speak English with anyone on a day-to-day basis. I have class four hours each day, Monday through Friday, and supplement this with a conversation partner, numerous assignments (namely essays and presentations in Spanish), and of course everyday interaction with locals.

Living with a host family has also very conspicuously aided my progress in Spanish here. My host parents, Doris and Fernando D'Arcangel, are a Venezuelan couple with no children of their own who have hosted numerous scholars (of the Rotary program as well as other exchange programs) from the States. I happen to be the first student they've housed who can actually pass as a Venezuelan (I'm short, brown-haired, brown-eyed; the antithesis of the "gringo" stereotype). Doris worked until recently as an events-coordinator but lost her job about a year ago when a different politician came to office here in the state if Merida. Her position was technically as an administrator within the local government, as the events-planning agency is government-owned and rents out government space for private parties and festivals. It appears common for administrative positions such as this one to change upon the election of new regional politicians, etc. Doris is also a 7th Day Adventist, a religious sect which appears to be growing in popularity here, although the vast majority of Venezuelans identify themselves as Catholic. Fernando drives young children to school each day. In lieu of a school bus system, individual drivers are employed who use their personal vehicles to transport young students. Fernando has a large "camioneta," or gigantic van with about 15 seats. He works on Saturdays at an auto workshop. He is very smart, a good conversationalist, and an ardent support of leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. I should note that the Venezuelan citizenry is extremely divided politically. Generally Venezuelans are much more willing (often too willing) to discuss their political views and preoccupations; I have thus been able to hear from the entire spectrum.

Like Edina, Merida (which has a metropolitan population of just over 300,000) has two local Rotary clubs. I've had the pleasure of attending meetings with both clubs. Omar Mora is the president of Rotary Merida, which meets each Wednesday, while Raphael Briceño heads up Rotary Santiago de los Caballeros, which convenes Tuesdays. They've all been very welcoming and their meetings have served as a good benchmark regarding my progress in Spanish: during the first meeting I attended, you can well imagine that I understood next to nothing. Since then, however, the majority of the speeches and discussions have become easier to grasp as my language skills improve.

I've been participating in several varied and interesting service activities here. Two days each week I volunteer at San Martin de Porres, a soup kitchen in the center of town, where lunch is prepared and served to about 50 people daily. I also assist an English professor once a week with her evening class at the Universidad Los Andes (ULA), where all undergraduate education is free. Last Thursday I went to Chiguara, a village just outside the city, to bring toys, toothbrushes and important health information to a group of underprivileged children. I assisted health/hygiene presentations given by two local Rotary members to the local school. I've recently been involved in the development of a vast botanical garden just on the outskirts of the city. Local volunteers assist a Botany professor from the Universidad in his twenty-odd year quest to transform a 50-acre landfill into a public park. It is truly outstanding, but only about halfway finished.

Very recently I've also come into contact with a particularly thrilling service option for my next few months here. Kay Smith, a former Rotary scholar from Nashville, has been living here for almost a year since her scholarship period ended. Her primary work has been establishing a network which would allow international travelers to come to Venezuela to work with local farmers, in exchange for food from the farm and a place to stay. This network is part of a larger organization known as World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF), which started in Great Britain in 1971 but has since spread throughout six continents. The WWOOF network encourages a symbiotic relationship between international travelers looking to help with and/or learn farming techniques (free labor), and local farmers who can always use an extra hand. As you can imagine, the result is an invaluable practical and cultural exchange. WWOOF Project Venezuela is yet in its infancy, with about about 10 Venezuelan farmers currently participating, and about 15 or so more who are interested in possibly joining. Kay will be leaving Venezuela in a few weeks, and so I am hoping to continue some of her responsibilities on the volunteer project. These would include communicating with the local farmers involved and seeking new participants, among other things.

The politics of Venezuela are complex and I hesitate to make too many generalizations or attempt any sort of distillation of objective "truth" in regards to the situation here. That said, there is plenty to report on this unique socio-political climate for your consideration. If any of you have been keeping up with the recent goings-on in Venezuela, you are probably aware that socialist President Hugo Chavez's popularity has dipped low in recent months, especially due to increasingly lengthy daily power outages, as well as the government intervention in 4 private banks, two of which were liquidated last week. Increasingly strained relations with neighboring Colombia have also taken their toll. Politically these two nations are arguably the most remote in South America. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe is arguably the current most conservative South American leader, and has recently agreed to host 7 U.S. military bases, a fact which has outraged and spooked the vast majority of "Chavistas" (Chavez supporters) and other leftist Venezuelans. On the other hand, the two nations share vast cultural bonds that transcend dogmatic political differences. Many Venezuelans theorize Chavez's public critique of Colombia has been an attempt to draw attention away from domestic problems. Anti-"Chavistas" (known as "escualidos," which translates to "squalids"; a pejorative which Chavez originally introduced to the national lexicon, it has since been proudly adopted by the political opposition) are particularly peeved to see Chavez buying tanks and arms from Russia while energy and economic crises worsen at home.

That's all for now, feel free to respond! More thoughts later.

Hope all is well on the home front. And above all, thanks so much for the wonderful opportunity you have all provided me with here.

Best regards,
Andrew

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Andrew D'Aurora
952.215.4752
andrew.daurora@gmail.com

Committee Chair: Open

This year, more than 8,000 teens will see the world the way it is best seen — from the inside out — through the Rotary Youth Exchange program. Rotary Youth Exchange students spend up to a year living with a host family in a country other than their own. They learn a new language, a new way of living and a great deal about themselves. Each serves as an ambassador, helping to bring the world closer together.

Each year, local Rotary districts and clubs worldwide arrange thousands of international exchanges for high school-aged students. The primary goal of the program is to foster world understanding by way of intercultural exchange. For school year 2008-2009, the Rotary Club of Edina  along with the Morning Club sponsored the exchange of 16-year-old Felix Batsch from Germany from August 2008 through July 2009.

A native of Schlier, a village near Ravensburg, Felix is fluent in English and has completed four years of French. He is the oldest of three children and enjoys Judo, skiing, climbing, reading and growing flowers – especially orchids. He likes “very fast and expensive cars” and envisions a career at Audi or Porsche in the future.

Rotary provides the exchange student with a monthly allowance, lunches at school and money for other school expenses. In addition, Rotary provides the student with health insurance. In the past, members of the Rotary Club of Edina have provided their exchange student with free dental care. Other small expenses are incurred by the host families.

For more information, contact International Service Director Jeff Ohe, 612-859-2726.

     Exchange Students from Years Past

In 2001-2002, our club sponsored Mariela Marcantetti from Buenos Aires, Argentina.  Mariela stayed with three families during her year with us, two Rotarian families and one non-Rotarian family.  Since high school, she has remained in the United States, obtained a bachelor's degree from the University of Minnesota, Morris, and a master's degree from the University of Massachusetts.  She plans to move to India about June 1, 2009.