Local summers abroad

Kimberly A. Smith, a sophomore at Laguna Beach High School, is

continuing her education this summer by attending high school in

Daireux, Argentina.

She is in the Pampas region of Argentina, which is where the

ranches are, approximately five hours south of Buenos Aires. Her

two-month high school program will be in Spanish, using the

o7porteno f7dialect, heavily influenced by Italian, which is unique

to Argentina.

Kimberly is a member of the Interact Club at the high school and

is one of 8,000 students participating in the Rotary Youth Exchange

program. This program offers high school students between the ages of

15 and 18 the opportunity to spend up to a year in a foreign country

as an exchange student, living with a local Rotary family. Other

students have already left for Ecuador, Brazil, South Africa,

Australia and New Zealand.

Kimberly’s foreign exchange experience is sponsored by the Newport

Beach-Irvine Rotary Club.

In September, Kimberly and her parents, Lenda and W. Baily Smith,

will host the first ever Rotary Exchange student from China. Nancy

Chang is a 16-year-old honor student at Beijing National High School

and is being sponsored by the Laguna Beach Rotary Club for one year.