Amber Herrle (2011-2012 Outbound to Thailand)
What Rotary gave me
I don’t know how to begin this, it is extremely hard to put into words how truly privileged and grateful I feel for having been a part of Rotary Youth Exchange. Really, I cannot thank you all, and every Rotarian throughout the world, for being a part of an organization that changed my life in such a positive way.
In August of my sophomore year of high school, I boarded a flight to Bangkok, Thailand. To be honest, I wasn’t nervous, afraid or worried about what the next year had to offer me-- but I really should have been. The following year would challenge me in ways I never could have imagined, I had to build a new life in a city of extremes and to say the least, it was overwhelming (most of the time.) But, I did it - I built my life there, I had friends, a family to rely on and now, Thailand is my second home.
During my year in Thailand I had a lot of time to think about what I wanted to do when I returned and what I wanted to do ten years down the line. I learned I loved languages and culture in Thailand but I also learned I loved people, human interaction and communication.
I was chosen for a Department of State fellowship to learn about just that the summer I got back to America. The program chooses ten American students and fifty european students each year to study and debate transatlantic diplomacy and the European Union for the entire month of July at Wake Forest University. The program was thrilling, we discussed philosophy and diplomatic theories in the classroom and debated Montenegro’s economic future over dinner.
That fall, I interned on a presidential campaign and work at a US Senator’s outreach desk. Both opportunities gave me two different looks at American politics, which I really loved. Working on a campaign was wild for me, what began as a 15 hour a week internship quickly turned into a 25 hour a week internship, I loved it.
At the same time, I was awarded a US Department of State Youth Ambassador scholarship to study in Germany my senior year of high school. There, I would live with a family and attend a regular German high school. Germany was not Thailand. I lived in a village of 2,000 people, a big switch from both Tallahassee, Florida and Bangkok, Thailand. I ended up graduating from my American high school by taking too many online classes and summer classes at my local community college.
I am currently attending George Washington University on Presidential Merit scholarship, majoring in Middle Eastern Studies and German. I walk past the International Monetary Fund on my way to Arabic every morning and I have complained about being woken up by the presidential motorcade a little too much for being a Freshman in college. It’s pretty cool. I will be going to diplomacy (fingers crossed) and hopefully be working at an American embassy somewhere in the Middle East. I want to go into diplomacy because when I was a mini diplomat, I felt like I had made an impact on my community, family and friends. I want to help form better, more productive conversations in the international sphere and potentially make our world just a little bit more peaceful.
There are very few people I have come across who think that their 15-16 year old range was the best time of their life. But I can tell you with almost certainty that it was for me. Yes, it was great, exciting and wild at times but my exchange was much more than that. Thanks to Rotary, I’ve been able to challenge myself in new ways, I have the confidence to take on whatever gets put in front of me and I’ve learned to love a good challenge. Rotary developed me into the person I am today: confident, independent, trilingual and ready to take on the world. I’m excited to be where I am, and I know that without you all, and the Rotarians who took a chance on me-- the naive, redhead with a lot of sass-- I would not be where I am today.