Rotary Youth Exchange

What is Rotary Youth Exchange?

Rotary Youth Exchange is a country-to-country exchange of high-school age young people who are between the ages of 15 and 19 years old when they arrive in the hosting country. (Some countries including the United States will not accept students who are more than 18 ½ years old when they arrive.) The exchange offers a cultural and educational experience for the student and those serving as hosts. The exchange lasts 10 to 12 months and follows either the American school year or the school year of the foreign country.

What is Rotary?

Rotary International, which sponsors this program, is an international volunteer organization comprised of Rotarians around the world dedicated to improving their community, both locally and globally, through service to others. We are Rotary International District 5650, consisting of 45 Rotary clubs representing eastern Nebraska and western Iowa.

Objectives of Rotary Youth Exchange

• To further international goodwill and understanding by enabling students to study first hand some of the problems and accomplishments of people in lands other than their own.
• To enable students to advance their education by studying for a year in an environment entirely different from their own, and undertaking the study of courses and subjects not normally available to them in their own country.
• To give students opportunities to broaden their outlook by learning to live with and meet people of different cultures, creeds, and colors and by having to cope with day-to-day problems in an environment completely different from the one they have experienced at home.
• To have students act as ambassadors for their own country by addressing Rotary Clubs, community organizations and youth groups in their host country; by imparting as much knowledge as they can of their own country, its attributes and its problems to the people they meet during their year abroad.
• To provide sufficient time to study and observe another country's culture so that upon returning home students can pass on the knowledge they have gained by addressing Rotary clubs and other organizations and assimilate the positive aspects into their everyday living.

District 5650 and Its Youth Exchange Committee

Conduct and administration of the Exchange program is the responsibility of the two participating Rotary Districts under the authority of their respective District Governors, Rotarians who are elected for a one-year term to provide leadership to the clubs and Rotarians in their Districts. All Rotary Districts participating in the Youth Exchange Program agree to comply with Rotary International guidelines but retain autonomy in conduct of the program. The responsibility for the Rotary Youth Exchange Program in District 5650 is delegated to its District Youth Exchange Committee. The District 5650 program is certified by Rotary International.