Jenny Maybee was a Rotary Exchange student from Newton New Jersey, a small town of about 7000. Since she was in 4th grade she worked towards being selected for the exchange program. She felt trapped in this small town atmosphere, everyone knowing her as "Dale's daughter" and assumed she would excel anything that she did.
 

She chose Rotary because it was a free exchange program not like AFS. She baby-sat and worked odd jobs to save her money for the plane ticket to New Zealand. In 1990, after a long selection and interview process she was selected. She stayed with 4 families while there, all very receptive to her. She visited a Rotary club weekly, often as the guest speaker. After speaking at so many clubs, she was invited to the National Conference to speak. She had no problems getting up in front of 1800 people. In the last 15 years since speaking about her experiences in New Zealand, she has gained a different perspective on what she learned from that year. It is no longer the difference in language and culture, but how she really appreciated her small home town and all that it had to offer. She came back and finished her high school year, and then moved to Tuscon, Arizona. In the last year she moved to Potsdam and works at the Potsdam Co-op as a buyer. She would welcome the opportunity to do be an exchange student all over again and has no regrets of the year spent away.