Youth Exchange
ROTARY Youth Exchange Opportunities
Bring the “international” in RI to your club and community! Rotary Youth Exchange is the opportunity of a lifetime for the more than 8,000 students who participate each year. By sponsoring or hosting a Youth Exchange student, your club shares your own culture and embraces a new one. Your club can help foster global understanding and peace.
What is a Rotary Youth Exchange?
Youth Exchange is a study-abroad opportunity for young people who spend anywhere from a few weeks to a full year as an international student hosted by local Rotary clubs.
Exchanges are for students ages 15–18 who:
- Have demonstrated leadership in their school and community
- Are flexible and willing to try new things
- Are open to cultural differences
- Can serve as an ambassador for their own country
How Can Your Club Participate?
There are 3 Types of Youth Exchange Programs.
- Your club can sponsor a local American student to go live with Rotary-screened host families and attend high school in one of many countries for an academic year in the Long Term Exchange. The cost to your club? About $500. They will communicate with your club during their year abroad and When they return they visit your club to tell you all about it. The cost to a student is usually airfare and approved medical insurance.
- Your club can host a high school student you select from another country. Unlike other exchange programs, Rotary Exchange Students are pre-screened by the sponsoring Rotary District to be some of their best and brightest young people. Your club, with assistance from your District Youth Exchange Committee, arranges local host families and enrolls the student in your local school for one academic year. It’s a great experience for your club as they get acquainted with the student and it’s very rewarding for your community and school as they teach the student about life in the USA - and learn about the student’s homeland. The cost to your club is about $1500 per year since each hosting club is expected to give the student a stipend – around $125 per month – to help defray the cost of a cell phone, haircuts, school expenses or social activities. The host families provide room and board, everyday guidance and help the student learn about American family life. The student is a family member, not a guest!
- Your club can sponsor a Short Term Exchange for area high school age students during the summer. There is no cost to be a sponsor club and most of the arrangements are handled by your Rotary District Youth Exchange Committee. Rotary matches your student with another from a selected country. Then that student will come to stay with your student’s family here in the US for 3 or 4 weeks. At that point, your local student flies home with the foreign student to stay with his or her family for another 3 or 4 weeks. It’s a great and fairly simple way for students from around the world to experience living in each other’s culture with a shorter time commitment. The cost to the student is usually about $1000 to $1500 for air fare and approved medical insurance.
Your District Youth Exchange Committee is here to help you all the way!
Your trained and Department of State certified Youth Committee can help you get started and will provide direction and guidance through the entire exchange experience. The process takes time, so please contact us if your club has an interest. Students for Long Term Exchanges usually apply about 9 months in advance and Short Term Exchanges 3 to 6 months in advance.
If you are curious about what is involved, we look forward to hearing from you and would be happy to speak with you or your club about the programs.
You can contact: Annette Sweet at 660-216-7891 RID6040YEO@gmail.com, Wendy Coffey at wendy.coffey413@gmail.com or anyone else on the District Youth Exchange Committee: Dick Helmuth, Susanne McCambridge, Derby Juez Perez, Nelson Hopper, and Allen Garner
Source for forms: www.scrye.org