After graduating from Slippery Rock High School in 2013, Grascen Shidemantle elected to retake her senior year again in another country.

Shidemantle, 19, of Slippery Rock spent a year in Ecuador as an exchange student sponsored by Rotary District 7280.

“It changed my life,” Shidemantle said. “I miss Ecuador every single day. It’s just a part of who I am now.”

She got involved in the program partially because she participated in the World Affairs Council through the Rotary as a junior.

Slippery Rock Rotary Club President Brad Smith asked her if she would like to be an exchange student. After some thought, she decided to do it.

Shidemantle left for Ecuador in August 2013 and returned to the United States in June. She was one of about 130 Rotary exchange students from around the world staying in Ecuador.

She lived in the mountains of the country, about 20 minutes from the capital city of Quito.

She stayed with two host families, living with her first family from August 2013 to March, and with the second family from March to June.

The first family had two children, but they were out of the country, so it was just the parents and Shidemantle. She liked the experience.

The second family had a 21-year-old daughter. Shidemantle said she was helpful in making the transition from the first family to the second family, and she now considers her to be a sister.

“I loved being with her. She became one of my best friends,” Shidemantle said.

The main language in the country is Spanish. Shidemantle had about four and a half years of Spanish from school, but she said she did not become fluent until December, after several months of living in Ecuador.

In Ecuador, she said most people go to private schools, with only very disadvantaged children going to public schools.

Her first host family paid for her school for the entire year. She also said her school was bilingual, with students speaking both Spanish and English.

She said that the schools are very big into promoting entrepreneurship among students.

At her school, the seniors had a project where groups of students had to develop, create and market a product, which later was judged by businessmen.

“I was really impressed by what I saw,” Shidemantle said, saying that some of the students got offers and deals for the products they made.

She said people in Ecuador are a lot more laid back than in the United States.

“People were late for everything, and I’m not used to that,” Shidemantle said.

The food was heavy on pork, quinoa, potatoes and plantains.

She said there were many different dishes, and her second host family gave her a cookbook to take home.

“They have such great food there,” Shidemantle said.

She said the country, which is about the size of Colorado, has three different areas: the rain forest, the mountains and the coast.

“It’s so diverse in such a small area,” Shidemantle said.

Because it is located on and named for the equator, many people think the country is very hot.

“That’s not really the case,” Shidemantle said.

Due to the elevation of the mountains, she said that she experienced temperatures between 55 and 75 degrees year round. She said that the temperature changed constantly all day.

During her time there, she also went on several group trips with other exchange students. This included trips to the rain forest and the coast.

In March, she and others took a trip to the Galápagos Islands.

“Getting to go to the Galapagos was one of my dreams,” Shidemantle said.

She kept in touch with her family using Skype.

Shidemantle said she always has been independent, so it was not too difficult to leave her family for a year. But, she said it was a little scary to leave her comfort zone.

In the end, she found her time in Ecuador to be very rewarding.

“It was very hard for me to leave,” Shidemantle said.

Since returning home, she has kept in touch with her host families and the friends she made through Facebook.

Shidemantle is a freshman biology major at Slippery Rock University.

Her time in Ecuador made her even more interested in traveling. She said she is looking into studying abroad in Australia next fall.

“I just can’t wait to go to the next place,” Shidemantle said.