Pawling Rotary Sponsors Student for the International Youth Exchange Program
By Susan Stone and Lori Johnson
As part of its focus on supporting area youth by providing services and scholarships for educational enhancement, The Pawling Rotary Club has sponsored an exchange student to Austria during the 2015-2016 school year.
Ms. Chloe Panzer, daughter of John and Kristin Panzer of Millerton, New York, and a member of the Panzer family of Pawling has been studying abroad since early September of last year. Chloe came to the attention of Pawling Rotary last spring, through the director of Rotary International exchange services for this district, Ms. Nan Greenwood. At that time, Chloe was seeking sponsorship from a local Rotary Club, and her family connection to Pawling seemed an ideal match for the Pawling Club.
Chloe has maintained continuous contact with Lori Johnson, who chairs the youth exchange program for Pawling Rotary. Ms. Johnson reports regularly to Pawling Rotary about Chloe’s activities, experiences, and adventures, as she explores Europe with other Rotary International Exchange Students. Chloe, a junior in high school this year, has been living with two families in Austria and attending a local high school outside the city of Linz. Her course work and graduation requirements have been coordinated with her home school, Webutuck High School in Millerton, preparing her to graduate with her class in the spring of 2017.
Pawling Rotary is exploring the expansion of a Rotary Youth Exchange Program in Pawling High School beginning in the 2017-2018 school year with the goal of making this one of Pawling Rotary’s signature ongoing community offerings. Through continuing discussion with Pawling Superintendent of Schools, Dr. William Ward, who has secured approval of this program with the Pawling School Board, it is the club’s desire to sponsor an outgoing Pawling student who would spend his or her junior year abroad, as well as to sponsor an incoming international student who would spend the school year living with a Pawling family and attending Pawling High School, enhancing the experience of cultural exchange and diversity community-wide.
To read all about Chloe Panzer’s amazing year studying and living abroad, log onto her blog at: https://mytriptoaustriablog.wordpress.com/
For more information about Rotary’s International Youth Exchange Programs, or to find out how community students and families may participate in Pawling Rotary’s Youth Exchange Scholarship Program, please contact Lori Johnson or Susan Stone at info@pawlingrotary.org .
