Our presenters Felix D’Haenens and Daiana Contini are former Rotary exchange students.
Daiana is from Cremona, Italy (home of the violin) and attended GP South for the 2011-2012 school year. She really enjoyed her film class as school in Italy didn’t offer those type of electives. Daiana had two host families and has stayed in touch with one of them, spending Christmas together a few years ago.
Daiana attended university in Bologna, Italy, studying economics. Thinking she might go to college in the United States, she took the SAT, which she was able to use to get into the Italian university. She has just completed her graduate studies in Copenhagen, Denmark, where she is currently living.
Her time with Rotary has taught her sense of community and to be open minded and open to exploring.
Speaking from his home town, Mons, Belgium, Felix attended GP South in 2012-13, having already graduated high school. His favorite classes were photography and cooking.
Felix is completing his studies in communications and works with group “social animation”, which for us, means motivational. His goals have shifted as he is looking to become an English teacher at the high school or college level. His love of the English language is what his time with Rotary provided him.
Our guests, John and Jack Mozena, spoke of the benefits of hosting an exchange student. John found that both the host familes and the student learned a lot about each other, especially with the small cultural differences. What would have been a very young Jack in 2012-13, he bonded with Felix over music and described him as “awesome”.