The Waupaca Breakfast Rotary Club has hosted dozens of foreign exchange students over the years.
Just arrived are two students who will attend Waupaca High School, and stay with three host families each during the year.
Hsu Fang is a Rotary Youth Exchange (RYE) student from New Taipei City, Taiwan, a city of four million people.
In Waupaca, Hsu Fang will go by the name of “Edward.” He is on his first trip abroad, speaks Mandarin Chinese, and has studied English for five years.
At home, he rode a bus for an hour each day to school. He took many science courses in high school, including engineering, drawing and is interested in architecture, music and design.
His first host Rotary family in Waupaca will be Paul, Cheryl and Lily Slettens.
Ruchir Joshi, from Nagpur, India, is the second RYE student coming to Waupaca.
He is 16 years old and lives with his parents, younger brother, uncle, aunt and two cousins, which is a common mix of families in India.
Ruchir speaks three languages, but uses Marathi at home, the official language there. Each state in India has its own language. He speaks Hindi (the shared language of India), and also speaks fluent English.
He traveled four miles to school by auto rickshaw. He loves math, physics and chemistry. He is interested in cars, and would like to study automobile engineering, specializing in care design.
Ruchir’s first host in Waupaca will be the Grant-Johnson family, including Chris, Kim, Zane and Zoe.
The Rotary Youth Exchange program encourages international understanding.
Waupaca Rotary has hosted as many as four students per year from cities throughout the world. The group has also sent local students to foreign countries.