When Michael Lombardi graduates from Traip Academy in Kittery on Friday, it won’t be the end of his high school education.

Lombardi has been accepted to Bates College, but he’s delaying the start of his college career for one year so he can attend another year of high school in Aomori, Japan, a prefecture that has a sister-state relationship with Maine.

Lombardi developed an interest in Japan when he was a sixth-grader at Shapleigh Middle School. A contingent of students and officials from the Tobu-Kamikita Schools in Oirase and Rokunohe, Aomori, came to visit the middle school and Lombardi struck up a friendship with one of the boys.

“I had a good time talking with him and after he left, we continued communicating,” Lombardi said.

The summer after eighth grade, Lombardi traveled to Aomori with a group from the middle school and stayed with his Japanese friend’s family.

“It was an eye-opening experience, where I found out the whole world isn’t just Maine,” Lombardi said. “On the plane trip back, I was sitting next to a man from China who spoke Chinese, Japanese and was fluent in English. It made me realize that some people spend their whole lives immersing themselves in other cultures and languages just so they can bridge the gaps between people.”

When Lombardi started high school, he began studying Japanese online and has become conversational, enough so that he acts as a translator and guide whenever students visit from Aomori and he volunteers as an instructor for the Japan Club at the middle school.

Described as one of the friendliest students at Traip, Lombardi is an Eagle Scout who played alto saxophone in the academy’s bands and was a member of the academy’s drama club, making the all-cast list at the regional drama festival this spring. He also plays guitar in the youth band that he started at the Church at Spruce Creek and he works at Terra Cotta Pasta Co., a part-time job that turns full time each summer.

Lombardi held community fundraisers, assisted by the Kittery Lions Club, that raised $4,000 to help pay for his year abroad. He’s looking forward to meeting new people, honing his Japanese language skills and learning more about Japanese culture. He plans to study Japanese and economics in college, but he also hopes his experience encourages other Kittery kids to look far beyond Maine’s borders.

“I want to show students there are opportunities out there,” he said. “You just have to work for them.”

– By Kelley Bouchard