Student's Exchange Trip Offers Inside Look at Chinese Culture — "I Would Definitely Go Back"
- 7 hours ago
- 1 min read
by Trinity Gruenberg
Bertha-Hewitt High School Student Brooklyn Hess recently returned from an exchange program that took her to South Korea and China, where she spent nearly two weeks visiting schools, staying with host families, and exploring major cultural and historical sites, including the Great Wall of China.
Hess traveled from April 11–22 as part of an exchange organized by AESA Global and sponsored locally by the Lakes Country Service Co-op in Fergus Falls. The total cost of the trip was about $10,000 per student; each participant was responsible for $2,500, with the remainder covered by the sponsoring organizations. Hess said she was able to fundraise nearly all of her share.
Hess joined the program after discovering an opportunity to apply for a scholarship-based exchange.
“I actually just applied, like a scholarship,” she explained. “So I’d write an essay, and it was just like an online application for the trip to be an exchange student.”
About a month after submitting her essay, she learned she had been accepted.
The program appealed to her long-term goals. After college, Hess hopes to become a travel nurse and also pursue missionary work.
“When I saw the opportunity, I was like, well, this is perfect, because it aligns with what I want to do for a career and later in life,” she said. “It’d be a good opportunity to just go and see [places] I’ve never been..."
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