After rounds of interviews, essay questions, and medical testing, Wenatchee High School seniors Asa Smith and Kiana Wilson made the cut for participating in next year’s Rotary Youth Exchange Program.

Smith and Wilson were selected along with 11 other students from District 5060 during district interviews this past weekend. District 5060 of Rotary International encompasses North Central Washington to British Columbia, Outbound Coordinator Liz Stepniewski said.

Eastmont senior Cecilia Luevanos-Casas accompanies Wilson in representing Wenatchee’s two Rotary clubs in the exchange. Though originally chosen as an alternate, Smith was taken up by Yakima’s Rotary as the club lacked students from its own area.

“It was an awesome surprise,” Smith said of going from an alternate to a finalist. “For about a month I didn’t think I was even in the running then in the course of a week I was selected. I was so happy to have a second opportunity for things to work.”

Participants have yet to find out where they will be staying for the 11-month exchange that begins in August of 2015; however, they certainly have their first choices. Unable to go to France because of not meeting the country’s 18-years-old age requirement by the start of the exchange, Smith’s top choice is Belgium, where he hopes to reside in a French-speaking region.

“As funny as it sounds, I made the decision [to go on the exchange] when I was about 10 [years old]. I was watching the high school production of Les Miserables and decided that I wanted to learn French and live in France,” Smith said. “France isn’t an option for me unfortunately, but I did learn French which leads me to my second reason [for wanting to go], Mr. Magnus. He has been a huge factor in the actualization of that dream.”

Smith continued to say that French teacher Jon Magnus encouraged him to go on the exchange and wrote his recommendation.

Though Wilson knows the language of most the countries she selected, the culture is what draws her the most to her first choice, Spain, and other Latin American countries.

“We had exchanged with Spain in the past but we had some problems, so we told them we wouldn’t exchange with them anymore,” Stepniewski said. “Spain said they made changes, so this will be the first time in several years the country will be on the list.”

Stepniewski said the Canadian portion of the district will select its participants in the coming weeks, and country assignments will be made in December.

“They [the participants] all have their own choices. We match them up through a one-on-one trade,” she said. “For example, if a student wants to go to France, France must have a student to give to us. So it’s kind of a tricky trade … we can never promise to match them to their first choice.

But flexibility is a characteristic vital in the program. Stepniewski said around 28 students applied from the Wenatchee Valley and were narrowed down to four then three on the criteria of an interest in and acceptance of different languages and cultures.

“A lot of people think we are looking for outgoing students. This is not necessarily true,” Stepniewski said. “It’s more about being very interested in culture, languages, flexible, and doing what you have to do to make sense of differences.”