An Egypt adventure

Young ambassador Catie Ashley of Hull spent a year in Egypt as an exchange student.

Catie Ashley had a great time during her year abroad as an exchange student in Giza, Egypt - except for the time she and a few friends in a cab were shot at.

"Someone shot at us and it broke the windshield, and the driver just had to keep going," said Ashley, a senior at Hull High School. "That was a little scary."

She has no idea why the group was shot at other than "being young and female and American, you stand out. But Egypt is really not a dangerous place as long as you know where to go and what to do."

Ashley was in a program of the American Field Service, getting the idea from exchange students her family had hosted before. Always in love with travel and helping others, Ashley wanted the cultural enlightenment of visiting a land new to her and helping other people in the bargain.

"I consider myself like an ambassador," she said. "We visited orphanages, I volunteered as an English teacher for African refugees, spent weekends cleaning poor areas of Cairo, and helped at the World Health Organization. I truly saw another side of life that most people cannot even imagine."

During her Egyptian stay, she lived with a Coptic Christian family for six months and then a Muslim family for the rest of the time.

"It was amazing to see the differences in the two families and how religion dictates everything in their lives, their lifestyle, clothing, everything," she said.

Ashley has done other community service projects on her own, including in Cambodia and Thailand, and hopes to some day do work in Central or South America.

One highlight of her Egypt trip was being one of five exchange students invited to meet Suzanne Mubarak, the country's first lady.

"She's heading up women's rights there and I was chosen to be one of five students to meet her," she said. "That was just great."

To spend nearly a year "completely submersed in the Egyptian culture and way of life taught me so much. Now I'm just trying to bring home what I learned and teach that to others."

WINNING WAYS: Michael Spence of Randolph was one of a team of three Massachusetts students who placed second in the world among teams from 24 countries in the first "Chinese Bridge" World High School Student Chinese Contest, a challenge requiring students to demonstrate their Chinese language and culture skills, held in Jinan City, China, in July. The team from the Belmont Hill School took second (Singapore was first) by demonstrating superior skills in speaking, writing, and performing in Chinese. The strong performance earned Spence, Robert Alexander of Winchester, and William Dunn of Weston trophies and scholarships, including travel and accommodations, to study in China, awarded by the Hanban, the office of the Chinese Language Council International.

HOLDING ON TO SUMMER: The Hull Nantasket Chamber of Commerce is hosting the Endless Summer Waterfront Festival on Sept. 20 from noon to 6 p.m. on Nantasket Avenue, to benefit the Hull Nantasket Chamber Scholarship Fund. There will be live entertainment, sandcastle building, hot dog and pizza eating contests, and more than 20 local restaurants presenting their specialty items. For information, visit hullchamber.com/endlesssummerpage.htm.

TOURNEY RAISES CASH: The BuyTheCase.net Golf Classic held at Crosswinds Golf Course in Plymouth this summer raised more than $25,000 for the Boys and Girls Club of Marshfield.

NEW PRESIDENT NAMED: Toni Gershon-Stern of Easton has been named the new president of the Easton-Mansfield chapter of Hadassah. She is a mortgage underwriter for Mansfield Bank. "Getting to Know the New Hadassah," a reception for Stern, has been scheduled for Sept. 21 at 3 p.m. at Jimmy's Pub & Restaurant in Mansfield.

BUSINESS BRIEFS: Kitty's Corner, a cat-boarding facility in Whitman, has reopened. The business offers B&B accommodations for cats in the private home of business owner Tonia Evans. Kitty's Corner is a member of Pet Sitters International.

Cherry Hill Pools of Pembroke has won the 2008 Masters of Design Award from Pool Spa news, a national trade magazine. Cherry Hill won for a design in which a barren back yard in Shrewsbury was turned into a family-friendly garden that includes a maintenance-free swimming pool, said James McGill, company president, who also said the award was the first won by a South Shore company.

Advanced Communication Technologies, a designer and installer of custom electronic systems, has garnered two industry achievements. The company was included for the second time in the CE Pro 100, an annual listing of the top integrators in North America. The company also won an Innovative Housing Technology Award for Integrator Excellence, Northeast Region.

Paul E. Kandarian can be reached at Kandarian@globe.com.