Who can go on Rotary Youth Exchange?

Students between the ages of 15 and 18 at the time of exchange may apply to Rotary Youth Exchange. Generally, this means high school sophomores, juniors and seniors. Some countries offer gap year exchanges, however, not all of our exchange partner countries will accept students who have already graduated high school.

Students will have to have an above-average academic record, a spotless disciplinary record and exhibit open-mindedness, responsibility, maturity and flexibility. Rotary is committed to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the selection of students, host families and exchange partners. Our DEI policy can be viewed here.

How long is youth exchange?

 

Currently, District 5280 is only offering a long-term youth exchange program, which overs one scholastic year. Generally, this is ten months, plus a week or two.

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Can I choose the country I go to?

 

Yes...and no. We give exchange students the opportunity to let us know their top four choices for exchange. About nine times out of ten, an exchange student will be offered their first choice country. Many factors go into the placement of students into host countries and host families. For example, a desired country may only have an available host family who can only accept a girl, because she will be sharing a room with a host sister. Sometimes a host family is not in a position to meet the dietary requirements of an exchange student. Sometimes exchange students with better language skills will be give priority for placement in that country. Sometimes a student is offered an exchange country, which was not in their top four. We encourage those students to give these "out of left field" placements a chance, because, while each exchange country is different, each host family unique and each exchange its own individual experience, there are somethings that are universal about any Rotary youth exchange: Namely, the immense learning and personal development that happens when placed in a foreign environment--regardless of the host country.

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What about graduating on time?

The vast majority of exchange students returning from a year abroad graduate high school on time and graduate with the same classmates with whom they started their high school journey. This, however, requires some planning and may require taking summer school classes. Remember, California high schools enroll transfer students from out of the state and out of the country all the time and do count a great deal of their previous coursework toward their graduations. Re-enrolling a returning exchange student is not much different.

It is very important to speak with your high school guidance counselor early in your youth exchange application process. Before applying, it is important to know what is required for you to graduate on time with your peers. There are a few things to keep in mind as you plan for high school graduation and beyond.

The first thing to consider is your particular school district's requirements for graduation. The State of California sets minimum standards required of all high schools, however, individual school districts in California have the authority and are responsible for determining the requirements for graduating from their high schools. Generally, school districts have higher requirements for graduation than the California state minimum requirements. Individual school districts may also have mandatory classes in their particular districts and these may vary from district to district. Similarly, private high schools will have their own graduation requirements beyond the California minimums.

Upon repatriation and re-enrollment, school districts will likely accept some or all of your high school work completed while on exchange for which you received a passing grade (the equivalent of C- or better) as electives. It is up to the policies and discretion of your school district whether to accept a course taken while on exchange as meeting a graduation requirement class, for example, whether your school district will accept that chemistry class taken while on exchange as meeting part of your science requirement or whether it will be listed as an elective.

The other thing to consider is preparing for college and having the coursework required to apply to the colleges on your wish list. The University of California and California State University systems employ a so-called A-G requirements for admission into their schools. These A-G requirements are often higher than a high school's minimum graduation requirements. Most other state university systems have very similar requirements to the California A-G requirements, however, your dream out-of-state university, private college or impacted field of study may have different minimum requirements.

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The universities to which you apply with assess your American high school transcript and your foreign high school transcript and determine which courses meet their admission standards.

 

What about transcripts from the overseas school?

Exchange schools will very likely provide a transcript of grades. It is the responsibility of the exchange student to translate the transcript and present the transcript in a form acceptable to his/her home school district.

Some school districts may require a transcript which conforms to the Hague Convention. The United States is a member of the 1961 Hague Convention, which allows for the simplified certification of public documents, including notarized documents, for use in countries that are also members of the convention. 
 

To request a school transcript for use in a country that is a member of the Hague Convention, you can obtain a transcript from the school and have the principal or other authorized official notarize it. Then, you can take the transcript and the notarized certificate to a state Notary Public Administrator to apply the state seal. If the country is a member of the Hague Apostille Convention, the Notary Public Administrator will add an Apostille certificate, and no further authentication is required. You can check the Hague Conference on Private International Law Apostille Page for a list of countries that are party to the treaty. 

 

Can I travel during the exchange year?

Exploring different parts of foreign lands is an exciting part of youth exchange. Exchange students are presented with many opportunities to travel with Rotary-organized tours and excursions throughout the year. Exchange students also very often accompany their host families on family vacations.  Schools in the host country often offer chaperoned trips, and youth sports teams or orchestras will often travel to an event: Rotary exchange students are permitted to go on these sorts of non-Rotary chaperoned trips with prior authorization from their Youth Exchange Chair, host parents and, depending on the destination, natural parents. Rotary Youth Exchange students are not permitted to travel outside a defined geographical area known as a "District" without informing the responsible Youth Exchange Chair. Rotary exchange students are not permitted to travel alone, and they may not travel only in the company of other minors. Similarly, an "adult" who is only, say,18 - 21 years old does not qualify as a responsible chaperone in our eyes. Some countries may require background checks on any adults with whom an exchange student travels. Before traveling to a country outside your host country, you should always check the visa requirements against your own passport.

Remember, however, that youth exchange is not a vacation: It is a cultural experience designed to create deep connections between people and communities. This can only be accomplished by actively engaging in school, making the effort to make lasting friendships and investing your time and energy in understanding your community's ways and ways of thinking. Viewing your youth exchange year only as an opportunity for tourism defeats the purpose, because tourism generally only touches a culture on the surface level. We expect and require exchange students to attend school regularly and to attain at least C-level grades, depending, of course, on the student's current language ability. 

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Can family and friends visit us during the exchange year?

Visits from family and friends are highly discouraged during the exchange year. If family and friends plan to visit, we strongly recommend planning this for the very end of the exchange and not during the school year.

Visits from family and friends from the home country "take the exchange student out of exchange." During the weeks leading up to the visit, the visit itself and then in weeks just after the visit, the exchange student is just not as mentally present in his/her exchange. The ten months of exchange go by so quickly! Removing the exchange student from any time that could be used to make friends and form deeper connections is, in our experience, a lost opportunity. Also, when minor friends come to visit, the exchange student is not permitted to travel with them without adult supervision and is not permitted to leave the District without prior notification to the Youth Exchange Chair.

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Who are the host families?

Host families are volunteers who identify with Rotary's mission of peace. Often, members of Rotary clubs will volunteer to host. Host families are not paid to host and often incur extra expenses in order to host a foreign exchange student. Host families come in all types:
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• Families with children at home

• Child-free couples

• Empty nesters

• Retired people

• Single people

• Same-sex couples

• Families with different ethnic, religious or cultural backgrounds

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Host families agree to undergo a criminal background check and home inspection.

Why do exchange students going abroad need to recruit host families in the U.S.?

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In order to go on Rotary Youth Exchange, we require all applicants to recruit two and preferably three families to host. Rotary Youth Exchange is a true 1:1 exchange: In order for us to send a young person abroad, we must be in a position to accept a student into our program. It is the responsibility of the outbound exchange student applicant to recruit and commit host families for an inbound exchange student. Often, the family of the outbound student is one of the host families. Outbound students often find host families by asking teachers, parents of friends, aunts, uncles and neighbors.  The 2-3 families will need to reside in the same school district's boundaries.

 

The sponsoring Rotary club can be of some assistance in finding host families, however, the responsibility remains with the outbound exchange student to find the potential host families. Start the conversation early with your sponsoring Rotary host club.

The inbound exchange student is not necessarily a student from the destination country, although that can happen. The inbound exchange student is placed based on who would be a good fit for the family.

Host families commit to hosting for approximately 3-5 months during the approximate 10-month exchange. Rotary Youth Exchange is different from other exchange programs, because we switch exchange students between host families during the year. Switching host families offers a deeper and broader cultural experience, lessens the burden on a single family, and offers a network of homes, should a host family need to go out of town, become ill or otherwise be unable to care for the exchange student.

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How much does Rotary Youth Exchange cost?

The cost of Rotary Youth Exchange varies year to year and country by country. Some host countries require things such as in-country language camps, school uniforms and the like, which can make one exchange cost slightly more than another. Health insurance varies in price from country to country as well. Generally speaking, however, Rotary Youth Exchange will cost approximately $6,5000 USD for the 2025/26 exchange year. Limited needs-based full and partial scholarships are available. Speak with your sponsoring Rotary Club about scholarship opportunities.

Rotary Youth Exchange is run entirely by volunteers. Rotary does not earn anything on Youth Exchange. In fact, much of the program is financed through donations. Exchange students, for example, are provided a monthly stipend of approximately $100 per month. This $100 is donated by Rotary and is not part of the program fees. This stipend is intended to make sure every student has at least some spending money for school supplies, transportation, toiletries and other incidentals. 

Host families are required to provide room and board, which means

 

• Two to three meals a day

• Access to a working bathroom

• Access to laundry facilities

• Access to a working kitchen

• A quiet place to do homework

• A room with a door that closes with his/her own bed on a frame with a mattress, bedding and towels.

The room may be shared with one minor host sibling of the same sex. Exchange students are expected to cover all other expenses during the year, such as cell phones and cell phone plans, school supplies, clothing, public transportation, ride shares and taxis, travel expenses, sports equipment and team expenses, school and activity fees, medical expenses and prescriptions, souvenirs, and have spending money for things like movie tickets, meals, and outings with friends. Some host families can be very generous with their exchange students. Some families offer to take exchange students on trips or to cover certain big-ticket things like concert tickets. However, anything offered to an exchange student in addition to the above listed room and board is a host family going above and beyond. Exchange students should not be asking host parents to cover any additional expenses, nor should exchange students be borrowing money while on exchange.

 

Rotary in most destination countries offer trips around the country or continent together with other Rotary Exchange students. These trips cost extra and are not included in the program fees. Scholarships are not available for these extra trips.

Exchange students are not permitted to work during exchange. Their visas do not permit employment. Exchange students may occasionally do things like babysit or do yard work for extra pocket money, as long as these things do not interfere with schoolwork and his/her overall cultural experience with the host family and community. The exchange student is required to be in a position to finance his own exchange without working.
 

What is the application process?

To apply for Rotary Youth Exchange, a comprehensive application packet must be completed and submitted by December 31, 2024. A non-refundable deposit is also due at this time. This application packet is not just the "ticket into" Rotary Youth Exchange, but is an important file that will accompany you throughout your exchange. It contains medical records, dental records, school transcripts, personal statements, vaccination records, documents needed for your visa and much more. Many parts of the application packet require official signatures from different people. Because the application contains many parts, it is important to get an early start on it. It is also important to take great care in scanning all the documents so that they are legible. Treat your application packet as you would your college application: You will want to make sure everyone is able to easily read and understand the information contained within. Please keep in mind the 5 C's when completing your application:

Complete (all sections completed and all documents collected, particularly medical records, vaccination records, birth certificate or passport, and school transcripts)
Compliant (documents submitted should be official records signed/stamped by the school, physician, immigration office and so on)

Current (include recent school transcripts, medical records and valid passport.)
Clear (include only clearly legible PDF scans, no JPEGs or other image formats)
Consistent (spellings of names, birthdates and so on need to be the same across all documents. Use full legal names of students, parents, and host parents where required. Nicknames or preferred names may be indicated in parentheses, but please use full legal names)

Once your application is submitted, you will be asked to participate in one or two rounds of in-person interviews and orientations in about February 2025. Shortly thereafter, you will be notified of your acceptance into the program. Within one or two months of that time, we will let you know your destination country. You may accept or decline the country offered. In rare cases, we may be able to arrange another destination country, however, this may not be an option. By May or June, 2025, you will be notified of your host family and host Rotary Club. At this time, you can begin your exchange in earnest by getting to know your host family through video calls and so on.

 

Which countries does District 5280 exchange with?

Exchange partners can vary year to year for various reasons. Currently, our exchange partners include:
 

• Australia

• Austria

• Belgium

• Brazil

• Chile

• Croatia

• Czech Republic

• Denmark

• Finland

• France

• Germany

• Italy

• Japan

• Mexico

• The Netherlands

• New Zealand

• Norway

• Paraguay

• Poland

• Romania

• South Korea

• Spain

• Sweden

• Switzerland

• Thailand

• Taiwan

No exchange country is guaranteed.

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What are the rules of Rotary Youth Exchange?

The Rotary Youth Exchange program its accredited through the United States Department of State within is mission of citizen diplomacy. Exchange students are considered citizen ambassadors of their countries and are therefore held to very high standards of conduct, often higher than the standards expected in their own homes and/or of their peers at school. Furthermore, Rotary International sponsors and contributes a lot of money and thousands of volunteer hours toward this mission of peace. We at Rotary contribute our time, talents and dollars toward achieving the goal of creating a generation of future leaders who have peace and goodwill as a cornerstone of their thinking.

 

The rules of Rotary Youth Exchange include several "Don't's," which encompass illegal and harmful activities and things which may threaten the program. Rotary Youth Exchange also includes several "Do's," which are just as important to youth exchange as the "Don't's." These rules require the exchange student to proactively engage with gratitude, curiosity, flexibility, kindness, and a sense of service and purpose. 

The rules are provided to the exchange student and they are given extensive training during two orientations before exchange and again during an inbound orientation once in the host country. The student is provided continuous counseling throughout the exchange year to make sure they maintain the high standards of conduct required.

A major infraction of the rules, for example, engaging in illegal activities and/or activities which negatively reflect on the student and the program, will be grounds for immediate release from the program and return. 

 

Similarly, the culmination of "minor" infractions can also result in repatriation. If, after repeated counseling, a student continues to exhibit behavior contradictory to the mission and goals of Rotary Youth Exchange, that exchange student will be returned to his/her home country.

Each student's visa is sponsored through Rotary International Youth Exchange: If Rotary removes sponsorship, the visa is no longer valid and a student will be required to return to his/her home country. The reasons for ending an exchange early are communicated to the countries issuing the visa. Depending on the reason, this may impact that person's ability to seek a visa from that country in the future. Therefore, it is very much in the interests of the student to stick to the rules and make an effort to maintain a very positive impression of him/herself and his/her country throughout the exchange.