Youth exchange program continues to be integral to Inter-Lakes School District

MEREDITH ― For 47 years, a robust youth exchange program has been an integral part of the Inter-Lakes School District. Through the dedication and generosity of the Meredith Rotary Club, which serves the towns of Meredith, Center Harbor, Sandwich, and Moultonborough, the program has made a lasting impact on generations of young people.

This year, Inter-Lakes Middle High School Junior Ivy Dassori-Kaye is spending a year in Odense, Denmark, the birthplace of Hans Christian Anderson. While in school in Denmark, Dassori-Kaye will take Danish lessons and is playing softball with a local women's league. As she prepared to embark on a year in Denmark, Dassori-Kaye participated in Rotary orientation programs and became close to a cohort of students from New England who are now on exchange all over the world from Brazil, Turkey and Romania to Austria, France and Slovakia.

Dassori-Kaye wrote, when applying for the program, “I want to make many lifelong connections and friendships. I want to experience what it is like living in a different culture and different society, due to growing up in such a small place where I have limited daily exposure to different cultures. When I get back, I hope to be able to share what I have learned."

After Dassori-Kaye left for Denmark, her family and ILMHS welcomed Arthur Ramos De Lima from Sao Paulo, Brazil for the 2026-27 school year. Brazil has one of the largest Rotary youth exchange programs in the world. Ramos De Lima speaks Portuguese and joined the Inter-Lakes Middle High School cross-ountry team. In his application letter, Ramos De Lima wrote: "For me, an exchange program is an opportunity to study another language, improve my English, and meet people from different cultures."

The Meredith Rotary Club offers both a Short-Term Summer Exchange (3-6 weeks) and a Long-Term Exchange program (full school year). Dassori-Kaye and Ramos De Lima are enrolled in the Long-Term Exchange program. Both students live with two host families over the course of the school year. They will immerse in the language, culture, school academics and activities as well as having opportunities to visit historical sights and landmarks. The Meredith Rotary encourages families to consider welcoming an exchange student into their home and to embrace them as part of the family. Host families are fully supported by the Meredith Rotary throughout the exchange.

For more detailed information on program requirements, deadlines, program costs, available countries, etc., contact Dean Gulezian, Meredith Rotary Youth Exchange Officer, at dean.gulezian@gmail.com or visit portal.clubrunner.ca/2942/page/rotary-youth-exchange or exchangestudent.org.