Rotary Club of Kingwood President Elect Kerry Gnik (left), Past President Bob Meissner and Secretary Treasurer Ray Thompson present Cozette Ries (third from left) with a check for $500 to help with expenses while she is a Rotary Exchange Student in Spain.
KINGWOOD — The Rotary Club of Kingwood is sending an exchange student to Spain.
And it gave exchange student Cozette Ries $500 to help with expenses. Ries, who would enter her junior year at Preston High School, is the club’s first exchange student to attend before graduation from PHS.
She is the daughter of Tarrell and Monica Ries. Tarrell Ries is president of the Kingwood club.
Cozette said she chose Spain because she wants to immerse herself in the language in order to learn it better. She has Face Timed with her host family in Moià and leaves Sept. 2.
Rotary recommends a communications blackout between parents and their child the first 30 days of the exchange, in order to lessen homesickness, Tarrell Ries said.
“Because she needs to have her brain where her feet are,” he said.
Cozette will be away for 10 months. The Kingwood club hosted a Slovakian exchange student recently and in the past has sent exchange students who already graduated from PHS.
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