Youth Exchange

Rotary International's Youth Exchange program sponsors more than 9,000 high school student exchanges globally each year to advance cultural understanding, international goodwill and peace. Each school year, the Sebastopol Rotary Club exchanges a west Sonoma County outbound student for an inbound student from one of the following countries: Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Italy, Mexico, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan and Thailand.

All students who are a minimum of 16 years old and not more than 18 1/2 yaers of age at departure in August are eligible to apply. A student's relationship to a Rotarian is neither a preference nor a disqualification. The keys to success as an Exchange Student are social flexibility, desire to learn about the host country and its people, courtesy, honesty and participation in school and host family activities.

Students are carefully assigned to a minimum of two and a maximum of four Host families during their 10-month stay. All Rotary Host Parents are non-paid volunteers that willingly open their homes and are dedicated to the student's well-being.

For inbound exchange students Rotary puts on a whitewater rafting trip in August and a fun weekend in San Francisco in October. Inbound and students selected to be outbound the following school year go on a ski trip to Mt. Shasta in February and attend the Rotary District Conference in May.

Preliminary Outbound Student applications are being accepted until October 15. If you are interested in applying, please contact Youth Exchange Committee Chair Tom Lambert of the Sebastopol Rotary Club at 707-829-7882 or lambert5@pacbell.net.

For more information on the Youth Exchange program go to: www.youthexchange5130.org.
Click For Preliminary Outbound Application

Press Democrat article about Youth Exchange student

Current Inbound Student	Current Outbound Student
Yuri Mauer, Switzerland	Ivan Espinoza
Past Inbound Student	Past Outbound Student
Jorge Escalante, Mexico	Thomas Rich
2007/08: Cathy Garo, France	Willie Wilson
2006/07: Roope Salonen, Finland	Clara Saguta
2005/06: Thalysor Nobrega, Brazil	Mollie Gibson
2004/05: Sarah Weimann, Germany	Kenny Bondelie