Rotary Exchange Student to Italy

Alexxandria Minye’ Barksdale is a 4.0 student at Midwest City High School where she is number 33 in her class. She has been a student- athlete that loves sports, but her love for travel and helping others is greater. Alexx loves her youth group at the Del City Church of Christ and when she was 14 went on her first of two, one-week long mission trips to Honduras with a group from the church, partnering with Breaking Chains. It was that first trip where she fell in love with the helping, the people, and the idea of travel.  She got involved in Rotary her Sophomore year as she found a way to help others, enjoy crossing cultures and living the 4-way test as a way of life. 

During Alexx’s Honduras mission trips she connected with a family there that she still communicates with to this day. She was insistent that her family host 2 young ladies from Japan when they visited which also changed members of her family’s life. When she joined the Wings of Rotary last year for a 2 week stay in Japan, she developed relationships that still exist today both in Japan and the USA. In preparation for the trip to Japan is when she learned of the opportunity to exchange for a full school year which she made happen. Alexx has studied Spanish since the 6thgrade, and before she knew about Wings of Rotary, she had begun learning Korean with the intent to move to South Korea after college to teach English. With her trip coming up for Japan, she had to leave the Korean studies to focus on Japanese, but then had to also focus on Italian. As of now, Alexx can speak Italian and Spanish and is starting her Korean back as she plans to attend Yonsei University in the Fall of 2021 in South Korea.