RYE REBOUND FROM BRAZIL- LEVI CROSS

The mission of the Rotary Youth Exchange is to foster world peace, international understanding and goodwill by extending international communication at the personal level through the exchange of students of high school age.  What began in Copenhagen, Denmark the Rotary International youth exchange program has run continually since 1929, and here locally since 1970.  For over forty years the Appleton Downtown Rotary has sponsored from our community student goodwill ambassadors to all parts of the globe.  That is quite an achievement we all can be proud of.  Annually, over 29,000 students from 78 countries around the world share their cultures with the Rotary Youth Exchange program and continue in the traditions of the RYE program.  It is Rotary’s hope that these young people will be able to observe, first hand, the problems and accomplishments of other countries by living with and meeting people of cultures, color and creeds other than their own.  Levi Cross, our “rebound” student shared a little bit of his experience of his time in Brazil.  Levi stayed in the state of Minas Gerdis, which has a population of 20,000,000 people.  The city he lived in was called Itabira, which the population was around 110,000 people.  While he stayed in Brazil he had 3 host families.  All the families were very different and he enjoyed learning the culture and their way of life.  While staying with the families he got to enjoy many trips such as horseback riding, hiking in the mountains, venturing through the Rainforest, experiencing the Amazon River, (where the lily pads are able to hold up to 70 lbs. and are only grown on the Amazon), many beaches with incredible sunsets and many picturesque waterfalls.  He also got the chance to experience a riverboat tour with 60 exchange students.  This was a 5 day trip where the students were able to sleep on the boat in hammocks.  While on this trip Levi got to experience the pink river dolphins and he also held his favorite animal, a sloth! When Levi arrived in August the school year was half over.  The school year goes from January to January.  He got to experience the junior class as well as the senior class.  School was Monday-Friday 7:00 a.m. until 11:30 a.m.  On Mondays and Wednesdays the students would have to go back to school from 2:00 p.m. until 6:00 p.m. Levi plans to attend his senior year at Appleton East High School and hopefully go to UW-Madison to become a doctor.  He is grateful for his experience and for the Rotary Club of Appleton for making it happen.