When school returns after this soon approaching summer break, most students attending Hastings High can expect the same old autumn festivities, but not sophomore Chandice Rogers. Instead of the typical football games and falling leaves, Rogers expects sunny skies and afternoons filled with adventure.
Earlier this year Rogers managed to land a spot in the Rotary Youth Exchange program as a foreign exchange student by getting through the rigorous application routine.
“The first step was filling out this long application. Then they called me and I pretty much had a full day of interviews,” Rogers said.
After all of the interviews, Rogers had to fill out yet another application for her host parents.
Once accepted Rogers needed to start raising money. International travel isn’t cheap.
“I held a raffle ticket fundraiser in the winter which was pretty successful. I also started a GoFundMe.com page that I share on facebook a lot and people help me through that sometimes,” Rogers said.
Rogers also applied for a scholarship that she hopes to hear back from soon.
If she gets all of her payments in, then sometime this summer Rogers will be on a plane headed to Réunion, a small tropical island off the coast of Madagascar.
“Réunion is pretty small. It’s about half the size of Rhode Island, but there are two volcanoes. One of the volcanoes is really big and covers about half the island and is one of the most active volcanoes in the world,” Rogers said.
According to volcano.si.edu, Piton de la Fournaise, the name of one of the volcanoes on
Réunion has erupted more than 150 times since the 17th century. The latest eruption occurred in August of 2015.
Rogers hopes that her time in Réunion will enable her to better develop her French skills and help her become more independent.
