Meet Zoë Ruddick, 14, taking on the Rotary Youth Exchange program in Japan

A Mackay teen is preparing to spend the next 12 months away from her family, living and going to school in Japan as the youngest in her program. See what she hopes to gain.

Zoë Ruddick is busy preparing for her 12 month trip to Japan. Picture: Michaela Harlow

Most 14 year olds can barely imagine travelling interstate without their parents, let alone overseas, but one Mackay teen will spend the next 12 months absorbing the culture of Japan, living with host families.

Zoë Ruddick, a student at St Patrick’s College Mackay, said she is excited for the adventure and thought it would be “really cool” to learn more about the Japanese culture and language.

She’s heading to the country through the Rotary Youth Exchange program, which the organisers claim helps young people develop their leadership skills, learn about themselves and build friendships all over the world.

Zoë arrives in Isesaki — a town two hours from Tokyo — in January where she will be going to school, and will have the opportunity to attend camps across the country to experience even more.

Zoë is excited to get immersed in Japanese culture and share a bit of Australia with Japan. Picture: Michaela Harlow

“I’m looking forward to going to snow because I’ve never seen snow and that will be awesome but I’m also looking forward to cherry blossom season because they’re super pretty,” she said.

There are three significant differences Zoë is anticipating: the language — which she speaks conversationally — the food, and the etiquette.

“Japan is a very polite country where you don’t speak unless you’re spoken to, and that’s very different to Australia,” she said.

Zoë and her parents Karissa and Brett Ruddick are getting ready for a very different 2025. Picture: Michaela Harlow

Zoë’s mum Karissa Ruddick said that while she was very excited for Zoë to embark on this new adventure she was of course feeling nervous.

“There’s lots of mixed emotions,” she said.

“There’s so much to prepare for and she’s never travelled this far on her own before.

“As you can imagine, there’s lots of emotions happening.”

She added it was a fantastic opportunity and people should get behind their local Rotary so that they could continue to provide programs like this.

Zoë said Rotary has been a huge help when it comes to gaining the skills and confidence to make the trip possible.

“We have had two preparation camps in which we learnt how to use online public transport maps and we learnt how to get around without adults around,” she said.

“And we talked to returned exchange students and they gave us a bit about how their exchange went.”

Despite how different the next year will be from her regular life Zoë said she was excited for the adventure and thought it would be really cool to learn more about Japanese culture and Japanese language.

Her interest in language and culture developed when she was in just year four, taking language classes in school. She said the idea of an exchange started to interest her not long after that.

After talking with her grandad who is a Rotary member she started looking more seriously into the Rotary Youth Exchange and decided to take the leap.

With candidates ranging from 15 to 19 years old, Zoë will be one of the youngest participants but she says she is confident that she is well prepared to take on the challenge.