SEVENTEEN-year-old Charley Thorp is just weeks away from leaving for France, her new home until January 2025.

On January 20, 2024, Charley will begin her year long journey in Europe as an exchange student thanks to the Rotary Youth Exchange Program and Windmill Jelderks Trust scholarship of $2500, helping cover costs, except for airfares.

She will receive a weekly allowance sponsored by Rotary International and is expected to write a monthly report to be sent back to the Rotary Club of Portland so they can hear the impact of their support.

Charley isn’t the only one in this program however, as other students from across Australia will be making their way to various parts of  the world to stay with Rotary host families, Charley said.

“We'll fly from Melbourne, so a lot of different districts will meet in Melbourne Airport. From Melbourne we fly to Dubai, and then we all kind of stay there for five hours, then go off to our respective country flights,” she said.

“I'm not sure how many kids, but there will be others from Australia, however I'm the only one in our district to be going.”

Charley will live and go to school in the French city of Montpellier, for which she has been preparing.

Every Monday she has French language tutoring and additionally, has been in contact with her first host family – one of three she will be staying with.

So far, she can say clearly in French where she is from, and who she is.

She said by the three-month mark into her adventure, she could be close to fluent.

Although she has completed Year 11 this year, Charley doesn’t know yet if she will or won’t be studying as a Year 12 next year.

“I'll be doing mainstream public school, so they'll just give me my base classes, but there's a few mandatory ones which is French, and philosophy,” she said.

“Their curriculum is they have classes like ours (Australian students).

“School time starts at about 7.30am or 8.30am to about 6pm

“I'll have a two-to-three-hour lunch and 10-minute break.”

While she isn’t sure about her Year level, she does know she will be celebrating her 18th birthday far from home.

“It'd be fun to be able to go off and do things at 18, but there's still things I can't do.

“There's still rules and things I have to comply with, so I can't drink, and I can't smoke.

And to top it all off, she will be touring outside of France with fellow Rotary exchange students.

“During the summer holidays, we go on a Euro tour, and for I think it's 12 weeks, we go to 12 different countries around Europe.

“Going all the way to the other side of the world is going to be a big change.

“Just to view how other people view things as well, and have that cultural feel, to see how everything works differently.”

Meanwhile, while she is in Europe, a boy from her first host family will be travelling to Portland to stay until July 2025. The two will meet when she returns on January 20, 2025.

Portland Rotary Club member Andy Murrell said the idea of the program is to give students a broader understanding of what’s happening “outside their own fishbowl”.

“It's giving students an opportunity to have a broader perspective on life because it's very easy, especially in a rural community, for students to be perhaps isolated and not be able to get those opportunities to travel,” he said.

“When Charlie comes back, she may be able to pass on her experiences to someone else, who then may be given incentive to travel further.”