Joana Souto and Péter Hidegkuti are thankful for the experiences they’ve had as Rotary Youth Exchange students in Midland this past year.
Joana, of Ibaiti, Brazil, arrived in Midland last Aug. 14 and has lived with two host families: James and Alina Warner, and Matt and Kim Bennett. She attended Dow High School.
Joana, the oldest of four siblings in her family, said the most rewarding part of this year has been the host families and the new friends she has made.
“It’s always rewarding for both sides when hosting, because you can learn a lot with an exchange student,” she said. “It’s really good to have the opportunity to show them about your own culture. It’s really interesting to know someone from another country and to have them as your own son or daughter.”
Joana had her own previous experience in that regard. Her family in Ibaiti hosted an exchange student from Mexico when she was little, and this year they hosted a student from North Carolina while she was in Michigan.
Joana will return home to Brazil on July 23.
“I feel I’ve grown a lot as a person. I’ve built a lot of independence. That will help me a lot as I go to college,” she said.
For her part, Alina Warner said having Joana live with her family for several months motivated them to take some special trips. Alina and James have two daughters of their own: Maria, who is in college, and Bianca, who attended Dow High with Joana this past year.
The Warners only moved to Michigan three years ago themselves. They ended up walking the Mackinac Bridge and kayaking the Manistique River with Joana, among other things.
Joana is now living with the Bennett family until the end of her stay in Midland – Matt and Kim and their daughter, Quinn, and son, Chase.
Meanwhile, Péter comes from a city about the size of Midland just 15 minutes outside of Budapest, the Hungarian capital.
He came to Midland last Aug. 8, wanting to be there in time to try out for the Dow High boys soccer team, which he succeeded in making.
First, he lived with Matt and Kathy Rassette and their children, Rachel and Rian; and now he lives with Bradley and Mandy Duling and their children, Joe, Jacob, Addison and Ethan.
Like Joana, Péter has learned to become independent over the past year.
“When I arrived, the thing that stuck out was that I didn’t have my parents. I was in a house with, initially, strangers, and I had to built a trust with them,” he said. “But it went really smoothly. After a few weeks, I felt like I’d been staying with the family forever, in a good way.”
Both of his host families have done their best to make him part of their family, Péter said.
“I was really fortunate to have two amazing families. Both families spent a lot of time together to make memories,” he said.
The local Rotary clubs are now looking for host families for the next two high school exchange students for the 2025-26 school year: Anna Fekete of Hungary and Ching-Hao (Lex) Chiu of Taiwan.
They will both arrive in Midland in August 2025 and will stay until July 2026. Their first host families will determine whether each of them attends Dow High or Midland High.
According to her bio, Anna is a 16-year-old with an abundance of energy and a variety of interests. She enjoys snowboarding, ice skating, yoga, competitive writing (three novels) and has recently become involved with crocheting stuffed animals and baking (macaroons are her specialty).
According to his bio, Lex is a 16-year-old from a suburban city in Taiwan. He describes himself as “active, humorous and optimistic” with interests in many sports, esports, socializing with many friends, and performance arts and music. Studying piano for six years led him to learning multiple wind instruments and then jazz drumming.
Those interested in hosting Anna or Lex should email Karl Kamena of Midland Noon Rotary at kkamena@aol.com. A family must go through the process of becoming approved by Rotary before hosting a student.
Kamena said it’s not necessary to be a member of Rotary in order to host an exchange student. About two-thirds of host families are not Rotarians. Some families have hosted several exchange students over the course of time.
