First Impressions

"Aotearoa" means Land of the Long White Cloud, in Maori, which is the native language of New Zealand. Aotearoa was one of the first names given to New Zealand and is still used today.


Kia ora! (Hello!)
My name is Tanner Horton, I live in the very, very small town of Yreka, California. I am a sophomore in high school and am very involved in my school, sports, and community. For some time now I have been interested in studying abroad in another country. An opportunity has came to me to be an exchange student to the beautiful country of New Zealand! My hope is that I am able to go from January 2013 to July 2013.


While in New Zealand, I will be staying with a host family and going to school. I want to learn as much as possible about the native culture. Their way of life, views on other countries, view of the U.S., their morals, everything. I hope to exchange this information with them as well, and teach them about the United States. I recently learned that New Zealand requires all foreign exchange students to do a certain number of hours of community service! I absolutely can't wait to give back to my host country as much as I can.


I chose to go through AFS because I have heard so many great things about it. Last year at my school we had an exchange student from Columbia who went through AFS and she didn't have a single negative thing to say about it! I am excited to be working with such a great program.


My parents have agreed to pay half of whatever my tuition is, which can be anywhere from $10,000 to $12,000. That leaves me to raise $5,000 to $6,000. A very hard task to accomplish. I have until December 1st to raise all the money. There are 3 main ways I am going to try and raise the money. 1st, I am going to do TONS of yard work for people in my community, along with many other odd jobs. 2nd, I am going to write to local businesses asking to sponsor me. And lastly, there is this blog. My goal is to raise $3,000 by donations online. If anyone would like to help sponsor me on my trip you can donate here, by clicking the ChipIn button. I am extremely grateful for any amount you donate, it all adds up in the end.


I will post weekly updates on the status of my full application, how the fundraising is going, and anything else that comes up!
Thank you,
      Tanner Horton.