Short Term Exchange

Short Term Exchange

A successful Rotary Short Term Exchange Programme (STEP) is currently in progress for two 16-year old young men; Senan McKenna of Baldock and Ryutarou Sugimoto of Wakayama, Japan.

During July, Senan spent two weeks in Japan as guests of Ryutarou’s family and learned much about the Japanese way of life and culture and, as school term was still in progress, attended a few days of school in Japan. He returned to UK at the end of July with Ryutarou who is now the guest of Senan’s family in Baldock who have organised similar cultural visits for him in England. However, school in UK is on holiday until September, so sadly Ryutarou could not attend school here.

Ryutarou is sponsored by the Rotary Club of Osaka-Sayama and Senan by the Rotary Club of Baldock. On a “Rotary Day Out,” Senan and Ryutarou finally met District Governor Mary Whitehead and AG Barbara Middleton at Hitchin Priory Classic Car Show where they spent an interesting and very informative half an hour together. 

STEP is a wonderful way of bringing young people from different nations together and it is impressive how much progress is quickly made with the English-Japanese language translation. This exchange has been supported by District Youth Exchange Officer, John Hammond, who it may be said, is making much slower progress with Japanese speech than our two young STEP students!