Mike Murray Bartram Trail High School graduate

Bartram Trail students headed off to foreign lands

Rotary program sends 5 students abroad; will welcome 3 exchange students this year.

Preparing to embark on a year-long adventure, five Bartram Trail High students will be leaving behind friends and family while looking to more clearly set their sights on the future direction of their lives.

Destinations: Europe and Japan. The students are traveling abroad as part of the Rotary International Youth Exchange Program.

For Hannah McKinney and Mike Murray, the opportunity to experience and live in a different culture was very important. Both graduated in May from Bartram Trail. McKinney will be leaving for Switzerland on Aug. 6 and Murray will be heading to the Alsace region of France at the end of August.

"I have so many interests and just didn't feel I was ready for college," McKinney said. "Plus, I wanted the opportunity to live overseas while I am still young."

Murray concurred, saying he wanted to just hang out in Europe for a year. He said his dad explained to him that to "hang out" was a very expensive way to go about trying to find oneself. His parents suggested he find a program that would allow him to pursue his desire to go abroad.

The 18-year-old said the Rotary program was a perfect way to have extra time to mature after graduation and to prepare himself for college.

It will be the first time either student has ever traveled overseas.

According to the Web site ryeflorida.com, Rotary International is the world's oldest service organization with more than 1.2 million members in about 200 countries. The youth exchange program has about 8,000 high school students traveling to points around the world annually.

District Youth Chairman Al Kalter, a resident of Fruit Cove, said the program began in Denmark in 1929. Kalter said the organization resurrected the program about five years ago within the district. He said Bartram Trail principal Tim Forson has been a great supporter of the program and no school within the district has ever sent five students in the same year. In addition, the school will welcome three inbound students from Belgium, Argentina and Hungary.

Except for a deficiency in the language, Norway-bound Kerry Elison should blend in well. The blonde, blue-eyed senior at Bartram Trail will be spending the year in Farsund, Norway, and she found out her host mom makes traditional Norwegian clothing and quilts. Elison said she hopes to be able to learn the traditional handiwork from her host family.

She has been in contact with her family in Farsund and received an e-mail saying they have cousins living in Julington Creek Plantation. They will be in Norway when Elison arrives the first week of August.

Elison's sister, Tierney, serves as a Ro-Tech, or a mentor, for the exchange program. Tierney participated in the program two years ago and now helps others with questions and concerns about the program offering her insights and experience.

The students said they all expect some form of homesickness, citing the online journals students are encouraged to keep.

"Some of them get very depressing around November," McKinney said. "[Homesickness] is something you know is going to be there but it helps knowing about it and trying to prepare for it in advance. We'll be away during the holidays but I am just going to try to embrace the traditions in Switzerland and get through the rough spots. It is really not much different than if I had gone away for college."

The other students in the exchange program are LeslieAnn DeLeo, who will be living in Helsinki, Finland, and Dominique Ghirardi, the youngest of the students at 15 years old, will travel to Japan.

The students said they are looking forward to what the experience holds for them. They hope being away and learning to adjust to a foreign culture will help them focus more on what they want to do in college and with the rest of their lives.

"I've spent so much time flip-flopping on a major," McKinney said, "This time away will hopefully help me determine a more focused path and better prepare me for my future."

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