{"id":11007,"date":"2016-02-17T13:29:01","date_gmt":"2016-02-17T18:29:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/huntsville.dopperonline.ca\/?p=11007"},"modified":"2016-02-17T16:37:56","modified_gmt":"2016-02-17T21:37:56","slug":"ginny-bjorkquist-rotary-exchange","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/ginny-bjorkquist-rotary-exchange\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Rotary&#8217;s 2016-17 outbound youth exchange student: Ginny Bjorkquist"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Travel. A new language. A different culture. The exciting unknown. All of these things are music to Ginny Bjorkquist\u2019s ears and the grade 11 Huntsville High School student will get to experience all of them next year.<\/p>\n<div style=\"float: left; margin-right: 14px;\"><strong> <broadstreet-zone zone-id=\"45658\" keywords=\"\" soft-keywords=\"true\" zone-alias=\"\"><\/broadstreet-zone><\/strong><\/div>\n<p>Bjorkquist was recently accepted as the Rotary Club of Huntsville\u2019s outbound exchange student for 2016-17, an experience that will have her heading to Belgium to live with three different host families while she goes to school.<\/p>\n<p>She doesn\u2019t know yet who her first host family will be \u2013 they\u2019ll be revealed to her in May \u2013 only that they are matched based on an in-depth application she submitted that included a personality test and letters from herself, her parents and her teachers. She doesn\u2019t even know which of Belgium\u2019s three official languages she\u2019ll be immersed in while there, but that\u2019s one of the things she\u2019s looking forward to.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt could be French or Dutch but probably won\u2019t be German,\u201d she said. \u201cI won\u2019t know until May which district I\u2019ll be in but I would prefer French both because I have a bit of a background from public school and I\u2019ve heard that in that district they only speak French and no English. That immersion will make it easier to learn. So I am working on my French but if I end up in the Dutch district I\u2019ll just go and learn while I\u2019m there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bjorkquist will have to do an extra semester or two at Huntsville High when she returns \u2013 the credits she\u2019ll earn in Belgium aren\u2019t counted here. But she wants to pursue a career in international development and feels this experience will be good preparation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI hope my job when I\u2019m older will involve travelling.  I\u2019m interested in Political Science and within that International Development. After that [university], I\u2019d like to try and get a job with the United Nations or the World Health Organization, but I don\u2019t have any solid plans yet. Experiencing another country by myself will be helpful because that\u2019s what I see for myself in the future. This is a really great program to initiate that and teach me how to travel the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She learned about the program from two friends who are both currently on Rotary exchanges \u2013 one in Spain and the other in Chile. \u201cI sat between them in Spanish class and heard them talking about it every day. I thought it sounded amazing. I really love travelling and experiencing different cultures. I thought it would be a great way to learn a new language and be immersed in a different culture. So I got involved in the Interact Club and applied.\u201d (Read Doppler\u2019s earlier story about the HHS Interact Club <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/hhs-interact-club\/\">here<\/a><\/span>.)<\/p>\n<p>Bjorkquist will also have the opportunity to travel; host Rotary districts plan optional excursions for exchange students. \u201cThey often offer a big trip you can do. I\u2019ve heard that for Belgium you can choose to go on a 10-day trip to Italy or to Spain but that might change. They will also take the students on little trips on weekends, doing activities that country is known for,\u201d she explained. \u201cYour host family could also take you to do things. And you can travel yourself if your host family is okay with that.\u201d Students receive room and board but are generally required to pay any special in-country travel costs themselves.<\/p>\n<p>While she waits to hear more details, she\u2019s following her friends\u2019 adventures on their own exchanges. Those reports have Bjorkquist ramped up for her own departure in August. \u201cI\u2019m so excited. It\u2019s going to be amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><broadstreet-zone zone-id=\"45657\" keywords=\"\" soft-keywords=\"true\" zone-alias=\"\"><\/broadstreet-zone>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Travel. A new language. A different culture. The exciting unknown. All of these things are music to Ginny Bjorkquist\u2019s ears and the grade 11 Huntsville High School student will get [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1903,"featured_media":11008,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-11007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-breaking"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Meet Rotary&#039;s 2016-17 outbound youth exchange student: Ginny Bjorkquist - Huntsville Doppler<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/ginny-bjorkquist-rotary-exchange\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Meet Rotary&#039;s 2016-17 outbound youth exchange student: Ginny Bjorkquist - Huntsville Doppler\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Travel. 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