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Rotary Club Of Oconee County |  |
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| District 6910 Chartered April 8, 1980 | |
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| Youth Exchange Student | |
Email from Gerrick date 3 September 2007 Hi! This is now my 5th week in Germany, and it's been great so far! Last week, I went to Berlin with my class, for a week. We went all over Berlin.to places such as: the German Parliment, Potsdammer Platz, and the Sony Center. I am now making a lot of friends, and can understand almost everything, but my language school was canceled, because of the lack of students. but I'm starting another one in October. Also, my Rotary club here is sending me on a 2 week tour of all of Germany later this month. I will be going to places such as: Munich, Stuttgart, Hamberg, and Berlin. - there are 10 cities in all.Thank you very much for giving me the chance to be here! Gerrick Hicks Email from Gerrick dated 6 August 2007 I started school today at Aldegriever Gymnasium, school meets Monday-Friday 8-12:20. The classes i am taking are: English, Math, Sports, Art, Physics, Chemistry, Politics, Religion, and History. Some classes i only have once a week. The classes are called Lessons and we have 5 everyday, with a 20 minutes break after 2nd lesson, and 4th lesson. I stay with the same class all day, and the teachers come to us, most of my teachers do not speak English, so that has been a problem. People in my class are nice, but shy around me because i am an American (Americans are not very popular here) but i am making some friends, who have been talking to me and helping me find my way around. Starting in a couple of weeks, i will go to a nearby Language school from 11-12:15 4 days a week so that i can learn German. Overall everything is going very well, and i am enjoying my exchange, thank you very much for setting this all up for me. gerrick Hicks 
Assistant District Governor Dr. Paul Matthews introduces Gerrick Hicks to
the members of the Rotary Club of Oconee County on 5/22/07
Gerrick Hicks will be sponsored by the Oconee Rotary Club for a long-term Rotary Youth Exchange for 2007-08. Gerrick has just completed his freshman year at North Oconee High School, and is the son of Alec and Brenda Hicks. Gerrick will be hosted by District 1900 and will live with a host family in the town of Bad Sassendorf, which he describes as "even smaller than Watkinsville" and which President-Elect Chuck describes as "the name of a punk rock band". (For more on this town, which has hot springs and is in northwest Germany, in the state of North Rhein-Westphalia--see http://www.bad-sassendorf.de/.) Gerrick plans to set up a weblog (blog) to keep family, friends and Rotarians updated about his experiences. Because he does not speak much German, he will be taking an intensive German instruction prior to the start of the school year. 
Rotary's Youth Exchange program sends over 8,000 high-school aged students for short- or long-term exchanges to another country every year, with over 80 countries participating. Due to difficulties in securing J-1 Visas, our district will not be hosting any in-bound long-term students this year, and Gerrick is the only out-bound long-term exchange from our entire district this year! The Oconee club should be proud of sponsoring this fine young man for what will surely be a life-changing experience for him. For more on youth exchange, contact our district Youth Exchange Chair, Jim Heaney (jim@rotary6910.com), or Assistant Governor Paul Matthews (pmatthew@uga.edu). |
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