When I spoke to Sue DeBolt a few days ago she was anxiously awaiting the arrival of the biggest soccer fan she has ever known.
For the past 21 months, this longtime member of the Aurora First Light Rotary Club has been following the remarkable bicycle journey of Jakob Alberti, a global adventure inspired by a goal to watch his beloved German national team play its first game of the 2026 FIFA World Cup in Houston last weekend.
After 16,000 miles that took him across 27 countries – including the Balkans, Turkey, the Middle East, India, Southeast Asia and Australia – Alberti made it to the U.S. and watched his team prevail over Curacao 7-1.
By Thursday, the 26-year-old globe-biker, who put away those wheels after that big victory, made it to the Chicago area, spending time with a good buddy in DeKalb before heading to Geneva for the Saturday wedding of another friend he’d made as a Rotary exchange student nearly a decade ago at York High School in Elmhurst.
DeBolt, who for 12 years has been the outbound coordinator for Rotary District 6450’s Youth Exchange Program, got to know young Jakob when he arrived from Germany in 2016. “Enthusiastic … outgoing, fearless,” is how she described him as a 17-year-old.
“He wanted to do it all,” she recalls.
That’s why DeBolt wasn’t all that shocked upon learning Jakob Alberti decided to set out from his hometown of Karlsruhe, Germany, in August of 2024 on a bike ride that would take him across four continents. But she certainly was impressed, as was the large global audience that’s been following his odyssey via news headlines and social media.
DeBolt, who’d been keeping up with his adventures on Facebook, was especially concerned when Alberti faced flooding in Thailand that forced him to wait out dangerous water levels for days. “Once you meet these kids,” she notes, “you will always care for them.”
Indeed, DeBolt’s connection to the students in Rotary’s exchange program doesn’t stop when school years end. She still corresponds with some, including frequent chats with Lorenz von Arx, who spent the 2014-15 school year at West Aurora High School and is now studying to become a lawyer in Switzerland.
Over the years, DeBolt has seen her role as a long-term mentorship rooted in consistency and care. She has watched former students get married, start families and build careers, sometimes with the help of recommendation letters she was delighted to write.
DeBolt is planning to have dinner with Alberti on Sunday, a couple days before he heads to New York to try to catch the German team’s game on June 25.
“Jakob is,” she says, “one of the most memorable students” to have come through the exchange program in all the years she’s been there.
Which surprises Alberti, who admits he was a “stand in the corner” kind of shy child. But all that changed during the exchange program, he says in a Friday phone interview after arriving in Geneva for the wedding of friend Megan Nolley and Julio Najarro.
“I came out of my shell, which is where I stayed for the last 10 years,” insists Alberti, who self-funded this trip and wants to work internationally in business after finishing his master’s degree.
“(The exchange program) made me more open to the world … it got me out of my comfort zone.”
Which, when considering what he just accomplished, is quite the understatement. He not only cycled some 16,000 miles around the world, he ran a number of marathons along the way. And he continues to find new ways to challenge himself.
For example, after reaching Houston for his team’s World Cup opener, Alberti vowed to run 10 kilometers for every German goal. Which is why he spent Thursday crisscrossing roughly 44 miles of DeKalb, taking time out only to have lunch and dinner with friends, including Evan Weiger and his girlfriend Gia Capra.
And yes, he will have to keep running here in the States as long as Germany continues to find the net in this tournament.
“If I’m not scared about the goals I set,” he tells me, “then they aren’t big enough.”
It’s a mindset DeBolt sees regularly when working with the Rotary’s exchange program. These students “all dream … they want to see and experience the world, make international friends and make a difference in the world,” she says.
“Jakob took that to another level in his journey, for sure.”
And in doing so, he helped expand her own views.
DeBolt, who never considered herself a soccer fan, now follows the World Cup with a new level of interest. For example, she knows “the Scottish team had not qualified for 28 years;” and that the “Tartan Army is representing big in Boston.” She also plans to catch Sunday’s Belgium Red Devils game because her daughter has become a huge fan since her own student-year abroad.
DeBolt sees the World Cup much like the exchange program, as another window into other cultures, shaped by the passions people bring to the games and the pride they feel toward their countries. It’s another way, she believes, we can learn from each other.
“I stay in this program because I see what happens to the kids … they become global citizens and they embrace all.
“We need more of that in this world.”
dcrosby@tribpub.com
