Getting Selected

I guess I’ll start by introducing myself. My name is Kira McNeil, and I currently live in Portland, Oregon. I am a sophomore at Lincoln High School. I am what is considered an “outbound candidate” for the Rotary Club’s International Youth Exchange, meaning I have been accepted by my local Rotary Club to be sponsored as an exchange student for my junior year. To get to the position that I’m in now, a few things had to happen. First, my Spanish teacher handed out little half-sheets of paper on the second day of school inviting all sophomores interested in a foreign exchange to attend an informational meeting in October. Living abroad has always been a dream of mine, so of course I immediately ran home and begged my parents to take me to the meeting. They were hesitant at first, but after hours of pleading, my mom agreed it would be okay for me to hear more about the program. I counted down the days to the meeting, and it finally came. In the meeting we learned that in order to be an exchange student we would have to fill out an application and then go through an interview. My local club (Portland Pearl Rotary) only accepts one to two students every year. This freaked me out, considering there were probably 15 other students at the meeting. After getting home, I begged my parents for hours for permission to apply and set up an interview. Fortunately, they (reluctantly) agreed. I emailed in my application and an interview was set up. I walked into the interview with my mom and dad, but the board of 3 Rotarians immediately pulled me away from them and began questioning me. Apparently I impressed them, because a few days later they called me to tell me I was selected!!! I was ecstatic, to say the least.