Twenty Japanese exchange students are spending their final week with Rotary District 7475, creating memories across West Orange before heading to Phillipsburg. What began as a cultural exchange has grown into something deeper—friendships, connection, and a Rotary family that now stretches across the world.
They Came to Visit. They’re Leaving With Family.
By Anna D. Banks, District 7475 Public Image Chair
The hardest part of a beautiful experience is realizing it is almost over.
Our 20 visiting students from Japan’s Rotary District 2670 are now in the final week of their Short-Term Youth Exchange with District 7475.
And somewhere along the way, something changed.
They stopped feeling like visitors.
Today brought them to West Orange.
Their morning began at Rotary Park, followed by a visit to the Thomas Edison National Historical Park, where they explored a piece of American history shaped by curiosity, persistence, and innovation.
At Eagle Rock Reservation, the day became more reflective as the students visited the September 11 Memorial and looked out across the New York City skyline.
It was a reminder that cultural exchange is about more than seeing new places.
It is about understanding the stories people carry.
Then came lunch at Agave Blue and an afternoon at Turtle Back Zoo—time to laugh, talk, take pictures, and simply enjoy being together.
And those may be the moments they remember most.
The conversations in the car.
The meals around the table.
The host families who opened their doors.
The Rotarians who made room in their lives for 20 young people from across the world.
Tonight, the students move on to Phillipsburg for their changeover dinner and the final days of their stay.
The suitcases will move again.
New homes will welcome them.
But by now, this feels like more than an exchange.
It feels like family.
Soon, there will be goodbyes, hugs, and probably a few tears.
And these students will return home with far more than photographs and souvenirs.
They will carry stories.
Friendships.
And the knowledge that thousands of miles away, there is a Rotary family that was very glad they came.
They came to visit.
They’re leaving with family.