Have you ever considered being a foreign exchange student - or hosting one?
Rotary District 5190 is accepting applications for students who'd like to study abroad.
"The Rotary Youth Exchange Program is one of the most wide-reaching student exchange programs in the world," said David Zybert, who sits on the board for the Youth Exchange. It's also one of the cheapest because all of the host families and a lot of the travel is done with Rotary volunteers, so we can make it one of the cheapest programs available to anyone. It costs about seven grand for the whole year and one of the things I'm fond of saying is you can't feed them for a year on that! Plus, for the year they're going, you can take them off your insurance."
Ellie Collins spent time as a student in France a few years ago.
"The experience honestly was life-changing," she said. "It was something that David (Zybert) brought up to me and I looked at the list of countries and said yes. The moment I heard about it excited me and i really wanted to go for it."
She stayed with three families in Strasbourg that year and says her parents were supportive of the decision.
"They were like, awesome - and not because they wanted to get rid of me," Collins said. "But they knew that I wanted to get out, if that makes sense. I think being a young person and going to a foreign country is one of the best experiences you can have because you get this dual-culture experience where you get to feel at home in two different places."
Deny, a student from the Czech Republic, is just starting her year here in Northern Nevada.
"I'm excited," she said. "It's really good because you can have inspiration from another country and you can be independent from your parents. You can grow up and have friends from all over and I think it's great."
Collins works with a group that helps provide a support network for students coming back and for new exchange students getting ready to leave home for the first time.
"We do panels, we help them pack their suitcases and get used to what it's going to be like being in a new country for a year," she said.
Rotary is always looking for host families as well.
"We have hosted students from Brazil, Italy, Thailand," Zybert said. "We have had international parties here in the house with kids from all over the world. We have a cat now that speaks 27 languages."
More information: http://www.rye5190.org
email: info@rye5190.org
