Student arrives from Thailand

Friday, September 3, 2010

Jekita Suhiranyawanich, arriving Hollis Brookline High School exchange student, performs in her native town of Phuket, in Thailand.

Enlarge

Jekita Suhiranyawanich, arriving Hollis Brookline High School exchange student, performs in her native town of Phuket, in Thailand.

Enlarge

Jekita Suhiranyawanich, arriving Hollis Brookline High School exchange student, performs in her native town of Phuket, in Thailand.

Enlarge

Responding to a call for help from the Hollis Brookline Rotary Club, more than six Brookline and Hollis families stepped forward to offer the warmth of their homes to a high school junior from Phuket, Thailand, who will attend Hollis/Brookline High School this school 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. Suhiranyawanich will be “adopted” for three months by 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.

At a gathering of the participating families and Rotarians recently, the group put final touches on their plans for Suhiranyawanich’s arrival. Led by the members of her first host family, a small delegation from Brookline and Hollis planned to greet her when she stepped off the plane at Boston’s Logan Airport. The first priority was to recover from her 20-plus-hour trip.

But now, Suhiranyawanich has jumped into a very busy new life, meeting new family and new friends, and very quickly getting into the important business of starting school at HBHS.

Her arrival marks the resumption by the Hollis Brookline Rotary Club of its involvement, several years ago, 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, are hosting students, who hail from 18 foreign countries. The generosity of Brookline and Hollis families – which are not necessarily connected with Rotary – is essential to the success of the program.

In addition to the three families with whom Suhiranyawanich will actually live, a number of other families, as well as individuals and Rotary members, will be working to ensure that the exchange will be a happy and rewarding experience for all concerned.

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.

– Submitted by the Hollis Brookline Rotary Club