Every week feels like Reconnect Week when you're a part of the Rotary Youth Exchange family.Whether it's a message from a past student or an impromptu visit abroad, the relationships built through RYE are anything but fleeting—they’re lifelong connections that redefine the meaning of community.
Recently, Patricia Murenbeeld, our district’s Inbound Coordinator, experienced that firsthand on a deeply meaningful visit to Japan and Taiwan. While the primary purpose of her trip was to visit her daughter working in Japan, Patricia couldn’t resist weaving Rotary into her travel plans—a testament to how RYE becomes part of your life fabric.
In Taipei, she was warmly welcomed with lunch at the historic Grand Hotel by the local district’s youth exchange committee and our outbound student there Ariah Namazie. ROTEX 2018-2019 inbound Jean Sung took time out of her busy work schedule to meet up with Patricia too.
If you're curious about the world and passionate about guiding the next generation, consider joining the youth exchange committee. Both our long-term (11-month) and short-term (4-6 weeks) programs are growing, and we’re eager to welcome new members who want to make a lasting impact.
For more information, please reach out to Justin Bester from the Brantford Sunrise Club.
But it was in Kanazawa where the full-circle moment unfolded. There, she met face-to-face—at long last—with Shinsaku Yamagishi, her counterpart in Japan, and Risa Nakakoshi, the mother of Kokone, our inbound student. Together with our outbound student, Beowolf Toms, they even took time to make traditional Japanese confectionery—a sweet metaphor for the cultural exchanges that define this program.What makes youth exchange so impactful isn’t just the life-changing experiences it provides to students. It’s also the profound relationships forged between coordinators, families, and fellow Rotarians. Throughout the year, coordinators serve as mentors, troubleshooters, cheerleaders, and cultural liaisons. These connections, nurtured through countless emails, calls, and visits, evolve into friendships that transcend borders.
In fact, many of us on the committee have found our travel maps reshaped by students we’ve hosted—weddings in Europe, reunions in South America, and now, tea ceremonies in Japan. That’s the quiet magic of RYE: it doesn’t just change the students' lives. It changes ours, too.