Hallo! My name is Gaelyn Marcinek. I am seventeen years old and currently a senior at Buchholz High School. I have lived in Gainesville, Florida my whole life and my family loves to travel. We’ve been to many places throughout the United States, my favorite being Hawaii! I come from a blended family of four parents, three siblings, and many aunts, uncles, and grandparents. Since I first learned about this program many years ago it has been a dream of mine to become a Rotary Youth Exchange Student, and now that dream has turned into reality! While I’ve enjoyed traveling for as long as I can remember, there are no words to express the excitement I feel for living in Austria for a year!! At school I’m involved in a program that focuses on learning about entrepreneurship and business. Through this program I’ve gained countless skills that I know will serve me well during my year abroad. Some of my favorite things to do outside of school include watching movies, reading, and writing. I’m very interested in the process of film-making and would love to study that some day. I also value time spent for self-care. In my daily routine, I make sure to incorporate some aspect of personal fitness, as well as rest, relaxation, and fun. I am looking forward to beginning this new chapter of my life. I’m so grateful to Rotary and my family for supporting me through this process. Thank you!

Oi! My name is Annalina Casillas and I have the honor of representing District 6970 on my 2023-2024 exchange to Brazil! I will spend my junior year studying abroad and I have aspiring goals I hope to check off. I am a huge outdoors person, so one of my main goals is to visit many of the beautiful and historical landmarks Brazil has to offer. Especially the beaches!

Currently, I am part of the Girls Weightlifting team at my school and I absolutely love it. I recently joined my freshman year and worked my way to the varsity team where I had the chance to compete in districts. I also train in classical ballet and have been for more than 13 years. I preformed in ballets such as the Sleeping Beauty–where I had my first variation–the Nutcracker, Don Quixote and many more. Smaller hobbies such as photography, surfing and bike riding are extra activities I also love to take part in.

I am very eager to gain new experiences and broaden my perspective of the world. My exchange would not be possible without the love and support of my family as well as my Rotary district/club, and I am extremely thankful for all of them!

Tchau!

Hello, my name is Sam Madsen. I am 18 years old and live with my family of nine. I enjoy reading, listening to music, interacting with animals, and traveling, which is why I first applied for exchange. Shortly after I was accepted and picked the top five countries that I wanted to go to, I was told a phrase that has become so meaningful to me: “You don’t choose your country, your country chooses you.” This phrase rang true as I stood on stage at the reveal ceremony, like a very happy deer in headlights, staring at the red, white, and green flag of a country that wasn’t even listed as an option for my top five. I stood there until our country coordinator shouted, “When you don’t eat you’re -” and from the deep recesses of my poor American geography I recalled the name of a place I only now remembered was a country, “Hungary!” Even in that moment – before I was told by so many at the ceremony how beautiful Hungary was, how it’s one of their favorite places in the world, how lucky I am; before I had any meaningful context as to where or what Hungary was – I felt truly glad. Glad I was going somewhere completely new to me, somewhere I could not have previously imagined. Since then, as I have spoken with my Hungarian tutor and researched Hungary, my appreciation has grown so much further. Although I still have yet to leave for Hungary, I simply could not imagine going anywhere else in the world. My gratitude towards Rotary and those wonderful people that have made this possible is too large to ever repay, but I plan to spend the rest of my life with Rotary, paying it forward.

I am fifteen years old and was born in Chicago and lived there until I was fourteen. I live with my mother, father, dog, and brother who just graduated high school. We moved to St. Johns, Florida in 2021. I just finished my freshman year. I love food and enjoy tasting and learning how to make different desserts and dishes from all around the world with my family. Literature is a huge interest of mine and reading is one of my main hobbies. I also have an interest in music and would love to learn how to play an instrument. I am ecstatic to visit the museums of Sweden and all of the sites Sweden has to offer to learn about their culture and history while I’m living in Sweden. Although I haven’t been ice skating much I love going with my friends and can’t wait to practice more in Sweden if possible. I enjoy going out with friends when I can whether it be at my house or out in public; that being said I like having time to myself as well. I’ve been to Europe before but never Sweden so I’m very excited to see and try lots of new things that I haven’t gotten the chance to before.

¡Hola! I am so excited to be spending my senior year in Spain and cannot wait to become fluent in Spanish and immerse myself in a completely new culture. I live in Saint Johns Florida with my mother and father and younger brother but I also have two older sisters. For most of my life I have moved around Florida, mainly growing up around Jacksonville and went to many different schools growing up before settling here. I am a junior in high school. I love hanging out with my friends during and outside of school and look forward to meeting and making so many new friends and memories over there. While in Spain I will strive to pick up new hobbies that I can bring back with me and share with everyone here. I currently enjoy baking, reading, doing art and going horseback riding at my family friend’s ranch.

While I was growing up I used to ride a family friend’s horse but he passed away in 2019 and we haven’t had a chance to start that up again, but I have been from 3 to about 13. As mentioned I am super passionate about art and that includes; digital, traditional and painting and I am really excited about all the art that Spain has to offer.

I am so ready to embrace this new year in Spain and I am so grateful to Rotary and my parents for allowing me to go on this life changing adventure and I can’t wait to see what Spain has in store for me and the person I will become when I get back. I can’t wait to see all the wonderful experiences Spain has to offer.

Hello there, welcome to my bio. My name is Isaac and I go to Creekside High school. Im an outbound to Finland and I hope to have a great time there. I love playing sports and playing the guitar. If you see me im always doing something active or playing the guitar. If you catch me doing something else I am probably sleeping or eating. Thats one of the best things in life, to eat, I love trying different foods and just exploring everything. My mom always said if I had a saying it would be “Do it for the experience”. I really took that to heart when I applied for this exchange. I hope to find a hidden piece of myself during exchange and to learn from this and take what I have learned with me forever. I want to become proficient in the Finnish language and learn about the culture in Finland. I want to thank everyone who has helped me until this point in my life, my mom, my dad, my siblings, my girlfriend, even my school friends. It was not easy to get to where I am today but if you are gonna take it from me, it is one of the best experiences of my life. It may be hard but has changed me in ways i would have never guessed or even imagined. Again Thank you to everyone.