A Bridge from Montana to the rest of the World

Montana Rotary Exchanges bridge the world through their youth exchange program as students travel to foreign lands to be Ambassadors of peace for Rotary.   If you think you would like to be a good representative for Rotary International, download the long term application and give it to your local club Youth Exchange officer or club president. The club officers will interview students and parents in their area and then submit it to the  District Chair. When approved by the local club, the students paperwork will be sent to the District to determine if they are eligible for an exchange.   Local clubs must agree to host one student for every student they send to the District level for interviews.    The student handbook outlines the program which can also be downloaded from the Rotary international website.   www.rotary.org.

Here are the steps for students interested in our District 5390 Youth Exchange Scholarship:

1.   Discuss with parents and review all information on youth exchange on the www.rotary.org website.   Make sure you understand the program details.  Students are responsible for all costs associated with travel abroad including passport, visa, insurance, airfare and miscellaneous expenses.  A fee is charged to families to process paperwork, orientation and other costs associated with setting up the long term exchange.  This fee is collected only when the student has been selected by the District and matched with an area.  

2.  Download the long term application and complete and give it your local Rotary club in your area.    If there is no Rotary club in your area, you can contact the District Chair to get more information about local club near your area.   The clubs interview the students and family and send the application to the District chair.  A second, in person, district level interview will be held to select the final students.   Deadline for long term applications to be submitted to your local Rotary club is September 15th of this school year.    The District level interview for applicants and their parents will be held on October 28, 2017.

3.  Remember that this is an exchange for exchange program and the sponsoring club will be asked to host a student.    For long term exchanges we require each out bound student and their family to recruit at least three families to potentially host the student throughout the year.  This is the hardest - to find good host families for inbound students in exchange for you going overseas to another family.   They do not have to be a Rotary member to house a student.  All families will have to submit applications, background checks and interviewed by the Rotarian YE chair for the club.

4.  Keep in mind that you may not get a choice in where you go so be open to new cultures.   If you have strong language training, we will try to place you in the country where you can improve on those skills.  There are currently six countries with which our Rotary District conducts exchanges.  They are located in Ecuador, France, Italy, Austria, Taiwan, and Brazil.  Other countries may be available.

For more information on our District Youth Exchange, Daryl Hansen, PDG at youthexchangemt@gmail.com.