About me and my exchange

Hello! Welcome to my first blog entry! My name is Mackenzie Kirkpatrick I am eighteen years old and I have recently been accepted to participate in an American Field Service (AFS) community service exchange program in South Africa! I decided to do a community service exchange rather than a student exchange because I've been involved in service projects in the past and have found it to be an extremely rewarding experience. To me the opportunity to do community service for not only a year but in South Africa is better than anything I could ever dream up. I feel that doing this will help me to gain a deeper understanding of a foreign culture and also help me feel like I am doing what I should to make this amazing world that much better!

Part of this experience is raising the funds. The tuition cost is around 8,000 dollars and I currently have paid about 1,000 dollars of this tuition. Lucky for me AFS has nifty little programs and suggestions to help me raise funds! I am starting a portable car detailing business as one way of helping me meet my monetary goal. Another is the ChipIn button on this page. This will link you to a Paypal account that is directly linked to my exchange. If you would like to donate using the ChipIn link please send me an email with your name and any message you would like me to post on my blog so I can be sure to give recognition to anyone who helps me reach my goal! If you would like to schedule an appointment for a car detail you can either email me or reach me on my cell phone! Feel free to contact me at anytime! Remember, this is for my exchange so don't hesitate to contact me! My email is Mackenziekirk@gmail.com and my phone number is (801) 448-8817. Thank you all!