Clare Stadnik - Euroscola 2016

                  Club President Isobel Clifford receiving a gift of Belgian biscuits from Clare Stadnik

The members were delighted when two guests stated they were to offer the Club some welcome publicity in St Andrews.

Vivienne Keetch (Manager) and Jo Ewing (Assistant Manager) of the Edinburgh Woollen Mill in Market Street, said they were interested in the Club’s fund-raising activities. By displaying a Club banner on their premises they would hope to assist in further publicity for charity fund-raising.

The third guest for the evening was Clare Stadnik. Clare was one of two 6^th year pupils at Madras College – the other being India Butler – who were co-sponsored by the Rotary Club of St Andrews Kilrymont, St Andrews Rotary Club and North Fife Rotary Club to attend EUROSCOLA 2016 at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, in February of this year.

Clare regaled the company with tales of her experiences in the Alsace city and of the event itself. EUROSCOLA is attended by 500 students from 29 countries. All the youngsters are students of French, Clare herself currently studying for Highers in Advanced French and Politics.

She and India were part of a 25-strong party from schools all over Scotland and took part in a number of projects designed to improve their French and their understanding of the European Union. Clare detailed one project which particularly interested her – investigating tourism in Strasbourg, which attracts 11 million visitors annually.

Among the tasks were street interviews with local residents, which provided a curious variety of answers. For example, some locals were of the opinion Scotland shared a border with Sweden!

And in answer to the question “Should Europe adopt English as its main language?” the French responded with a resounding “Non!”

Clare told the club the main event was the day spent in the European Parliament chamber itself. The students were informed of how the Parliament operated and in particular Clare’s group was focussed on what measures were being taken in respect of the current immigration crisis in Europe.

Clare, who celebrates her 18^th birthday in May, stated she had a found the experience fascinating, especially in the improvement to her French speaking and her confidence in conversing with French native speakers. She intends to continue her French studies after school – and told the assembled Rotarians that the EUROSCOLA event had helped her make a choice on how she may vote in the forthcoming EU referendum.

Rotarian Bruce Clark proposed the vote of thanks to an assured and entertaining speaker who clearly had benefited greatly from the Club’s sponsorship.