Thank you for your interest to possibly become a Rotary Exchange Student. Rotary appreciates bright and open minded students like yourself who want to go abroad for one year as a young cultural ambassador. While these young people spend the greatest year of their life in a country and culture other than their own, they become better people and do their part in making this world a better place. In addition they make many new friends and very often learn a new language - both more or less as "side effects" which are wanted but not the main purpose of the programme.

Unfortunately existing prejudice and wrong images of certain countries make exchanges between certain geographical very difficult. Students and even more often their parents have only certain popular countries in mind as a destination: They only want to go to English speaking countries because they want to learn English - and no, not even all English speaking countries qualify as a destination, only industrialized and economically advanced countries...!

We do of course offer exchanges with the USA , Canada, Australia and perhaps soon New Zealand - but why not consider India with its phantastic culture as a destination, why not the Philippines? Why not Germany, Austria or Switzerland and learn German? An attractive challenge for those students who speak good English already! Why not consider Belgium where most people have fluent command of 4 languages? Why not the Netherlands or Sweden? Why not consider Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador or Mexico? We are very happy with the recent development of our exchanges with Japan, which has become our most popular destination!

Click on any of the mentioned countries to find out more about them: You will be connected to a site with links to comprehensive information about each of these countries! As a candidate for the Rotary Youth Exchange Programme you can name countries of your preference, and with a written explanation you may even mention countries to which you certainly do not want to go at all. Your final assignment depends on where host places are available, and here again different countries have different age limits and different requirements as far as school performance of acceptable students are concerned. Ideal conditions are age 16-17 at the time of departure (usually in July or August) and school performance among the top 20 % of your class. While we try to consider each applicant's preference we cannot guarantee an assignment to a certain country.

If you have no problems reading this page you should be proud and happy: your English is so good that you are ready for a new language. In case you are willing to become a young ambassador in the Rotary Youth Exchange Programme, why not send us our preliminary application form?

Any particular questions? Please send us e-mail!