Exchange Programs - Rotary Youth Exchange

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Rotary Youth Exchange

The most powerful force in the promotion of international understanding and peace is exposure to different cultures.

The world becomes a smaller, friendlier place when we learn that all people — regardless of nationality — desire the same basic things: a safe, comfortable environment that allows for a rich and satisfying life for our children and ourselves.

Youth Exchange provides thousands of young people with the opportunity to meet people from other lands and to experience their cultures.

This plants the seeds for a lifetime of international understanding.

About Youth Exchange

A Brazilian student makes her first snowman inFinland. A South African masters eating with chopsticks at his Japanese hosts' home. An Australian becomes part of an extended family in Russia, and a Mexican student in France raises funds to benefit homeless children in Haiti. New experiences, new "families" and friends, and new adventures can await you, too.

This year, more than 8,000 teens will see the world the way it is best seen — from the inside out — through the Youth Exchange program. This could be your year.

As a Rotary Youth Exchange student, you will spend a year, or perhaps just an extended period of time, living with a host family in a country other than your own. You may learn a new language; you will learn a new way of living and a great deal about yourself. But there's more. While you are busy learning, the people you meet will be learning as well — about your country, culture, and ideas. You will be an ambassador. You will be helping to bring the world closer together, and you'll be making good friends in the process.

If you are ready for the challenge and the rewards of living in another land as an exchange student, then you are ready to discover new worlds through the Rotary Youth Exchange.

Information on this page came from:

The About Rotary and the RI Programs pages on the Rotary International web site