Almost 14,000km from her home in Slovakia, Karolìna Kolenčiak has found herself living in Shepparton.

The 16-year-old will immerse herself in Australian culture for a year — and is ready to soak up the experience.

Karolìna is here as part of Rotary Youth Exchange, a program that helps young students across the globe experience a new country for up to 12 months on a fully immersive experience.

Her decision to go on exchange came from wanting to experience something new.

“I wanted to travel around and get to know another country and another school system,” she said.

“It’s a lot of experiences and memories. You gain more than you lose.”

Karolìna has been here for two months and has been integrating well into her new school, St Anne’s College in Kialla. She has already noticed plenty of differences to her school back home.

“I like how you can choose your own subjects, that’s different. In my school, we have all compulsory subjects,” she said.

She’s using her newfound freedom to study biology, psychology and physics, and has been loving all the activity days so far, such as athletics day, pyjamas day and footy colours day.

Outside of school, her first host stay is with the Van Maanenberg family.

David and Heidi Van Maanenberg are no strangers to the Rotary Youth Exchange Program, with their own daughter Zoe currently in Czechia for her own exchange program.

“If you’ve got a daughter or son that goes overseas on exchange, then you’ve got to pay it back to help support the whole program,” David said.

Zoe has been overseas since January, and her parents couldn’t be more proud of everything she’s achieved so far.

“You miss your daughter, but at the same time you’re super excited for her, then you’re scared because you don’t know whether you’re doing the right thing,” Heidi said.

“And then with Karly coming, it’s like, ‘Oh, is she going to like us? What if we’re not what she expected?’ so there’s lots of emotions that go on.”

Welcoming Karolìna into their little family unit has been a fun experience for the family, as they navigate the cultural differences and show her everything about Australian home life.

“I would definitely recommend (hosting),” Heidi said.

“Having other kids helps make it more fun. When we go out, we’re taking our kid, we’re taking Karly, and it’s just like a family.”

“You want to make sure that you’re giving them as many experiences as you can as well, so you tend to be doing more activities than what you were,” David said.

So far with the Van Maanenbergs, Karolìna has got to experience not only regional Victoria but beyond.

One experience stood out as a favourite, though.

“The top for me was visiting Kyabram Fauna Park and seeing the koalas and kangaroos,” Karolìna said.

“When we saw the kangaroos, (Karolìna) just spontaneously ran up to Heidi and gave her a hug, I think that was certainly my highlight,” David said.

They have also taken her on plenty of trips to Melbourne, camping along the beach in Somers on the Mornington Peninsula, and out to Heidi’s sister’s family dairy farm outside Tatura. The family are also taking her to New Zealand during the school holidays, and said they were hopeful of showing her Sydney, too.

“It’s interesting to see the different way of life, to have another culture coming in and adapting to cultures to be able to create a way of living together,” David said.

“Watching her surprise at some Australian things, like people fake-tanning and how we shorten words, has been interesting,” Heidi said.

Karolìna is well on her way to becoming a pro at Aussie slang, and already has her favourites.

“Barbie, like barbecue, because I never had known it’s a barbecue before, it was only the pink doll, so it was very difficult (to learn),” she said.

“I was very confused (like with) brekky and telly.”

Just at the start of her journey, Karolìna still has plenty to see and explore in Shepparton, with a busy year ahead for her.

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Sunday, 5th January 2025

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