Ready for the adventure

Emilie Sheridan was checking her email during her cool down on the treadmill at the gym.
Once she read the words, “Congratulations Emilie. You have been selected,” she could not contain her excitement.
She ran toward her dad, who was running on another treadmill, as tears began to stream down her face.
He asked if something was wrong.
“No, I’m going to Japan,” said Sheridan.
Katie Homan and Sheridan, both 17 year olds who will be Fort Recovery High School seniors in the fall, had applied for scholarships from Family, Career and Community Leaders of America and Kikkoman to be a part of a six-week summer exchange program to Japan.
After Sheridan told her dad, she sent a text to Homan with the word “cuckoo.” Homan was driving back from a trip to Walmart with her friend Melissa when she received that text.
Homan’s friend read the text for her, “Emilie texted you ‘cuckoo.’”
Upon hearing that word, Homan was not able to contain her excitement. She had her friend call Sheridan to find out what was going on.
“Because that was our code word. We decided whenever we found out that we weren’t going to tell each other if we got it or not, we were just going to say ‘cuckoo’. Which means we know, we need to meet up so we can talk,” said Homan.
Sheridan answered her phone and kept insisting that Homan check her email. When Homan got home, she read her message and learned she had also been selected to receive the scholarship.
“I couldn’t even talk for three, four minutes,” said Homan.
Sheridan and Homan, who will leave for their trip Sunday, are both officers in Fort Recovery High School’s chapter of FCCLA, a student leadership organization that focuses on community service.
The scholarship, which was given to 14 students in the United States, includes round trip international and domestic travel, placement with a host family, regional orientation for recipients and parents, a three-day Japan specific orientation at the beginning of the program and support services in Japan.
Sheridan and Homan learned about the scholarship during a seminar at the FCCLA National Cluster Meeting last fall in Charlotte, N.C., that featured twin sisters who have each been through the program. They immediately decided they wanted to apply.
“I went home and started working on it right away,” said Sheridan.
That application process was long and stressful.
It included an online application, one educator evaluation form, a host family letter, responses to five short essay questions, a health certificate, a non-refundable application fee, a parent-student agreement, five candid photographs, eight passport-sized photos and an FCCLA supplement form.
Both Sheridan and Homan expressed thanks for the help they received from Cheryl Perkeybile, the advisor for FCCLA and a Family and Consumer Science teacher at Fort Recovery.  
Once they completed their applications, they sent them in and just had to wait. On April 29, Sheridan and Homan received the email that changed their lives.
Now that they are only a few days away from leaving, they are stressed but excited to embark on their adventure.
They’ve already had the opportunity to talk with their host families.
“I just want to meet my sister, my mom, and my dad and my brother,” said Homan.
Even though they have had conversations, only some members of the host families can speak English.
They will be attending school while they are in Japan as exchange students and learning the culture as well. They will also have the opportunity to play sports or join clubs.
“They just want us to be completely immersed in their culture, 100 percent,” said Sheridan. “We are not going as tourists, we are going as exchange students to where we are going to try to fit in and be a part of their culture.”[[In-content Ad]]