AHS CLASS OF '09: Exchange student made STAND at AHS

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June 4, 2009

Rowe off to study international relations

By Bethany Bray

New Andover High School graduate Nick Rowe is considering a major in international relations, and it's not a stretch to say he's already done some ground work in the field.

Rowe was born and lived in Germany until he was 8 and spent his junior year of high school as an exchange student in Ecuador. He's also been to Peru and is planning a trek to Guatemala this summer.

"I'm ready to try something new," said Rowe, who is headed to Claremont McKenna College in California. "Compared to Ecuador, it's really not that far. Just a four-hour plane trip."

Last year, Rowe spent a year living with a host family and attending a public school in Ecuador as an exchange student with AFS, an organization formerly known as the American Field Service.

He had taken two years of Spanish at AHS before the trip, but immersion in the language in Ecuador made him fluent, he said. Besides the language, he learned a lot about the culture.

"Sense of time was a big thing. You could tell someone to show up somewhere at 3 p.m., and they would show up around 4. People are always busy here (in the U.S.), but in Ecuador, there was more time spent with family," said Rowe. "Wealth is obvious here (in the U.S.), but poverty is equally obvious in Ecuador ... Going away to Ecuador made me more aware of the privileged position I'm in, just living in the United States, the opportunity here, the things that are possible."

Rowe's mother is German, and she was an exchange student with AFS, attending a Wisconsin high school as a teen. That's how his father and mother met, said Rowe.

Nick Rowe chose Ecuador for his exchange program because he had been to Peru previously, and had a good experience staying with a host family in Cusco, visiting Machu Picchu

and backpacking in the rainforest.

Besides his interest in travel, Rowe also ran track at AHS, was a member of the Peak Bagger's hiking club and worked on Barry Finegold's political campaign.

His sophomore year, Rowe started an AHS chapter of STAND, the student-led division of the Genocide Intervention Network.

The group organized fundraisers for victims of genocide in Sudan and created a documentary, interviewing refugees, experts on Darfur and former Congressman Marty Meehan.

"I thought there was a need for it," he said. "I felt it was something that needed to be done."