PUNTA GORDA — The Punta Gorda Rotary Club recently recognized its two 2024-25 Rotary Youth Exchange students.
Natsuki “Natsu” Asano is 17 years old and is a junior this year at Charlotte High School. Natsu is from Fukuoka, Japan. She is making new friends at CHS, improving her English, and involved in school activities, including the school’s Interact Club, according to Rotary Club officials. Interact is a student-led service club at CHS sponsored by Rotary.Sam Thomas, 16, was a sophomore at Florida Southwestern Collegiate High School in Punta Gorda last year. He is also a member of the CHS Interact Club. He is spending his junior year abroad in Campo Grande, Brazil. Campo Grande is a medium-size city and a provincial capital in southwestern Brazil. He is a high school student at Collegio Salesiano Dom Basco, a private college preparatory school. To prepare for his exchange, Sam has been studying Portuguese for the past five months.
Sam is the son of Greg and Amy Thomas, who are also Natsu’s initial host family.