Rotary Youth Exchange

Ciao! My name is Austen Brodeen, I am 17 years old, and I'm currently a Rotary Youth Exchange student from Fort Collins, Colorado, outbound to Crema, Italy! Coming from a German family and having the amazing opportunities to experience Germany and German culture, I wanted to expand my horizons and immerse myself into another culture, one completely different than Germany, so I decided to go to Italy on a month long exchange program to Italy back in 2015. It was in just that month alone when I absolutely fell in love with Italy and grew a long lasting fascination with the culture. After my short term exchange, I eventually convinced my parents to allow me to apply for a year long high school exchange program to Italy, which took a while to do, but it was eventually a success! Back in December 2016, I had my Rotary Youth Exchange District interview in Cheyenne, WY, where I was officially accepted onto the program! Going to Italy for my senior year meant that I had to graduate a whole year early! Yes, a WHOLE year of high school. It was not easy but, it felt great being the only 16 year old walking at graduation.





                                         Days Til Italy

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