Two local students are packing their bags and preparing for the trip of a lifetime as they get ready to travel to Shiraoi, Japan for six months.
Nalyssa Runge and Nolan Perison will be attending high school in Japan from August 2018 to January 2019, staying with local host families and learning a new language and a new culture, as part of an exchange program set up by the Quesnel Shiraoi Twinning Society.
Runge is starting grade 10 while Perison is going into grade 11, and both say they are excited to have new experiences.
“I’m looking forward to meeting new people and improving on my language skills,” says Perison.
Perison says he has been interested in Japanese culture since he was 10 years old.
“I’ve hosted about four times and have been to Japan before, in 2015, visiting Sapporo, Tokyo and Shiraoi.”
Runge says she’s thankful for the opportunity to become an ambassador for Quesnel.
“I’ve always been interested in exchange programs, from the students we had when I was young and the amazing stories that I was told. So when I heard about the exchange to Japan, I jumped right in,” she explains.
Quesnel’s students each received bursaries to help them with the exchange, and were presented with the awards at an event Saturday July 28 at the Billy Barker Showroom downtown Quesnel, which included a dinner with visiting Shiraoi delegates and entertainment.
The bursaries were created in honour of two Quesnel residents who were active in the Quesnel Shiraoi Twinning Society, Shirley Demers and Doug Jamieson. Their spouses, Phil Demers and Helen Jamieson, presented the awards to Runge and Perison.
Also at the dinner was a visiting delegation from Shiraoi, including 10 students and five adults.
Quesnel Shiraoi Twinning Society secretary Andrea Sturt says the students were matched with Quesnel students around the same age and stayed with host families over the weekend, so they could experience short-term life in Canada.
“One of [the Society’s] reasons for existing is to promote the friendship between the two cities, so when people from the two cities can visit either here or in Shiraoi, it’s the best way to promote the friendship,” says Sturt.
And Saturday night’s event was also hosted to say goodbye to Satsuki Yoshii, who has been on exchange in Quesnel from Shiraoi since last August.
Yoshii attended Correlieu Secondary School in 2017/18. She talked about her experiences, sang songs in English and Japanese, and showcased some of the activities she has enjoyed while in Quesnel.
She says she has enjoyed Quesnel’s people and living with her host family, but says she is eager to see her family in a few weeks when she returns home.
Sturt says hosting a student for a whole year has been a great experience.
“I’m excited we’ve been able to have someone here longer for this school year, and now we are sending two for six months,” she comments.
The Quesnel Shiraoi Twinning Society has been active since 1986 and has sponsored more than 300 students for the Japanese exchange program.
READ MORE: Quesnel’s Shiraoi exchange student is settling in
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