Rotary Short Term Youth Exchange Program

Short-term exchanges vary from a few weeks to three months. You will not attend school on a short-term exchange, but you will most likely live with a host family.

Rotary, however, offers a variety of short-term exchanges, including Homestays. On a homestay, you will live with another family abroad. This type of program can be arranged for individual students or groups of students. A typical homestay may involve you spending a few weeks living with a family in Australia, while your host "brother" or "sister" lives with your family.

Travel Opportunities
The Rotary Youth Exchange program offers the widest variety in international destinations when compared to other exchange programs. As a Rotary student, you will enjoy the opportunity to visit more than 85 countries in Europe, Asia, Australia, South Africa, and the Americas.

For more information about where Rotary Youth Exchange programs are active, contact your local Rotary club. Wherever you go, you will discover that the world is smaller than you once thought, and that you can gain a great deal from the unforgettable experience of being a Rotary Youth Exchange student.

Eligibility
If you are a high school student between the ages of 15 and 19, then you are eligible for Rotary Youth Exchange. As the oldest exchange program of its kind, Rotary Youth Exchange takes pride in choosing students who are academically above average, articulate, and demonstrate leadership in their communities.

Ideal candidates should also possess qualities — like flexibility and a willingness to try new things — that will enable them to become excellent cultural ambassadors. You do not have to be involved with Rotary in any way in order to apply, although children of Rotarians are more than welcome to participate.

Host family responsibilities
As a Rotary Youth Exchange host family, it is your responsibility to provide room and board for your exchange student. You are also expected to exercise general parental supervision over the student just as you would your own children, and involve him or her in daily household chores and activities.

However, most host families' involvement with their student does not stop at room and board. The families often share their native background while also learning about their visitors' culture. This does not mean that you have to arrange elaborate entertainment, but simply make the student a part of your family. Give him or her the opportunity to share in the same aspects of your family life that most teenage students experience in your culture.

Other suggested host family responsibilities include:

• meeting your exchange student on arrival in your country and making the student feel at home as part of the family;
• helping the student achieve language mastery;
• involving the student in obligations similar to those established for your own family members;
• helping the student meet Rotary obligations, which usually include attending Rotary functions, including club and/or district meetings;
• seeing that the student meets other young people;
• providing a safe environment for the student and ensuring the student's safety;
• being tolerant of differences and willing to change your own ideas.

Rotarian responsibilities
Rotarians work to take care of the logistics of the exchange. As all Youth Exchanges are carried out at the local level, the local Rotary club and district will arrange school enrollment, tuition and other educational matters with the local secondary school (for long-term exchanges). All program volunteers are devoted to the safety of the students, and the host club and district maintain policies and procedures to protect the students. Local Rotarians also introduce the student to the other club members and organize some social and cultural functions for the student to attend.

For long-term exchanges, the hosting club or district appoints a Rotarian counselor and arranges a monthly allowance for the student. The Rotarian counselor maintains contact with the host family and the student throughout the exchange.

While Rotary International offers support to local Rotary Youth Exchange programs through publications and suggested guidelines, Rotary districts and clubs run their programs independently of Rotary International. Therefore, each club or district program has its own specific rules for youth exchange participants to follow.

Student responsibilities
All students are ambassadors of the Rotary club that sponsored them and of their country. They are expected to follow the Youth Exchange program rules, be open to new experiences, and strive to learn the language of the host country.

The student and his/her own family will assume certain financial obligations. These include round-trip air transportation, clothing, health insurance, administrative fees and incidental expenses.