Most students are getting ready to settle into a new year at school, but for Zoe van Maanenberg, her schooling is set to look a little different this year.
On Sunday, January 21, the St Anne’s student is packing her bags and flying across the world to participate in Rotary International’s student exchange in the Czech Republic.
This trip has been a long time coming for the 15-year-old.
“I wanted to do exchange years ago and then last year, when I was in Year 9, I decided I wanted to do it and I didn’t want to have to repeat, so Year 10 was the best time to do it,” Zoe said.
“I’m so excited, I can’t wait.”
Zoe will be heading to the Czech city of Ostrava, where she’ll spend the next 12 months attending grammar school and integrating herself into the Czech way of life.
During the year, she’ll be living with two different host families, switching over after six months.
Living in a non-English-speaking country can be a daunting experience for many, but Zoe isn’t fazed by it. In fact, she’s up for the challenge.
“I’m excited for the culture shock, my host family, and I’m excited to see Prague; apparently it’s one of the most amazing cities, and it’s Europe. I’ve never been there before,” Zoe said.
“It’s a very hard language. The dialogues are very hard to get. They have their male, female, non-living, and non-binary, then you have Czech and Czech Slovakian,” she said.
“Then they have the accents above the letters just to make it more fun, so it’s quite fun.
“It’s really enjoyable to learn. At the moment, I’m at a Grade 1 understanding.”
A Rotary International program, the student exchange offers school students around the world the opportunity to experience school in another culture.
Mooroopna Rotary Club is the club that put her forward as a candidate after Zoe approached them, and after a vigorous application process and several interviews, Zoe was accepted into the program.
Rotary Club youth exchange chairperson Kelvin Rogash said Mooroopna Rotary had paused the program for 10 years due to several factors, so it was exciting to have Zoe on board, given the program’s long history.
“Yea Rotary was the first Rotary in the world to do the exchange back in the 1950s, so it certainly gets a lot of push within our Rotary district,” Mr Rogash said.
“Our Rotary club, (has helped) I would say at least 30 exchange students over the years.”
Packed and ready to go, Zoe dons a green Rotary blazer, given to her by the organisation, decorated with a collection of badges she’s collected from other Rotary exchange students she’s met in Australia through Rotary weekends.
The weekends help students who are getting ready to leave for an exchange meet and network with current student exchanges from outside Australia.
These weekends have prepared Zoe for her trip as she will participate in similar weekends and excursions with other Rotary exchange students in Czech.
She’ll settle into her new home country as soon as she gets there, with plans already set for a ski week and a European holiday during the summer vacation in July and August.
However, there’s one aspect of the trip she’s looking forward to the most.
“I love architecture,” she said.
“My dad’s a builder, my mum likes interior design, but the architecture will be amazing over there.
“Also looking forward to the European trip where I’ll go to Italy, and I’ll see Rome. That’ll be amazing.”