Rotondwa said YES to 10 months in the US
Capricorn High School learner Rotondwa Mathivha says the experience in Maine gave her lifelong friends and that she does not regret applying for the programme.
POLOKWANE- Gr 11 learner Rotondwa Mathivha is one of three learners at Capricorn High School, who took part in the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (YES) Program.
She spent 10 months in Maine in the US, after hearing about the exchange programme from a friend and then applying through the AFS Intercultural Program.
AFS is a non-profit organisation that aims to create foreign relations between countries by creating and facilitating exchange programmes.
“They assisted me with a special scholarship and it took me almost a year to get to the US as I had to undergo assessments to qualify,” she said.
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When she was eventually accepted, she could not have been more proud, Mathivha told Review.
“I applied for the programme, in order to not have regret in the future. I could not believe it when I was finally approved. It only became real when I landed in the States and everything was so different from what I was used to,” she said.
The experience of living in a foreign country was great, and she learned just a much.
“It was fun, yet challenging. I found it difficult to make friends as the learners at my host school had known each other throughout their high school careers. The first day of school was tough. I arrived in a space where friendship groups had already been formed and I had to find friends that were suitable for me and who liked my personality,” she said.
The experience brought her lifelong friends and she still maintains contact with them after having returned in June.
Just like her fellow exchange students who returned to school recently, she opted to instead repeat Gr 11.
“The experience abroad was worth it. My friends are now in Gr 12 and I have to start afresh and make new friends in my grade, but I adjust and move on.”
Mathivha recommends the experience to every young person, saying it puts one’s own life into perspective.
“I now know which direction my life should take, and every minute of the journey was worth it.”
