Exchange student headed to local school
Published: Thursday, August 19, 2010
Jekita Suhiranyawanich, arriving Hollis Brookline High School exchange student, performs in her native town of Phuket, in Thailand.
Responding to a call for help from the Hollis Brookline Rotary Club, more than six Brookline and Hollis families stepped forward to open their homes to a high school junior from Phuket, Thailand, who will attend Hollis/Brookline High School during the coming year.
Jekita Suhiranyawanich arrived in Hollis in mid-August. She will follow a full junior-year curriculum at HBHS while continuing to pursue her special interest in singing. Jekita will be “adopted” for three months by each of three volunteer families, who will treat her as one of their own, helping her to adjust to her new life in a New England town, 10,000 miles from her own home and family. Other local families who volunteered, and a number of Rotarians, will be available to assist as needed.
Led by the members of her first host family, a small delegation from Brookline and Hollis greeted her when she stepped off the plane at Boston’s Logan Airport.
Jekita’s arrival marks the resumption by the Hollis/Brookline Rotary Club of its involvement in the Rotary Youth Exchange program. This 20-year-old program is coordinated by Rotary District 7870, which is made up of 60 Rotary Clubs in Vermont and New Hampshire. This year, 20 of these clubs, including Hollis Brookline, will receive a student, who will come from one of 18 different foreign countries.
The Hollis Brookline Rotary Club is a part of Rotary International, a volunteer organization of 1.2 million business and professional leaders united worldwide to provide humanitarian service and help build goodwill and peace. About 32,000 Rotary clubs in more than 200 countries and geographical areas conduct projects to address the challenges of illiteracy, disease, hunger and many others.
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