Application deadline nearing for Rotary exchange program

Have you ever dreamed of living overseas? If you are a teenager in Mid-Missouri, Rotary Youth Exchange is offering you a chance.

But the deadline for the preliminary application is coming up quickly - Oct. 15.

Established in 1972, today more than 7,000 students from more than 80 countries participate in the Rotary Youth Exchange program.

The preliminary application is fairly simple, but it's the first in a series of steps intended to narrow down which students will be given the opportunity to travel.

The two-page application can be found on Rotary District 6080's website at www.rotary6080.org. (The district encompasses 53 clubs throughout Missouri.)

"They need to be matched with a club," said Kit Freudenberg, youth exchange officer for the district.

She noted Jefferson City has four clubs, and typically each club sponsors one outbound student. Depending on the number of applicants, students have a 50 to 75 percent chance of being accepted.

Rotary Youth Exchange students usually are outgoing, mature for their age and in the top third of their class. They also tend to be involved in volunteer and community activities. They must be between the ages of 15 1/2 and 18 1/2 as of Aug. 1, 2015.

Once the district committee receives a student's preliminary application, it will be forwarded to a local Rotary club. From there, the student will be contacted for a preliminary interview. If the club believes the student is qualified, he or she will be advanced to the district level to fill out the long-term application.

District selection interviews will be Nov. 22.

Each student will attend roughly one year of high school overseas, taking as many of the same academic courses as possible and participating in school activities.

"They will live with three different host families," Freudenberg, noting that often the student is offered a chance to live with families on a farm, or in a city or near a suburb. "It gives them a different experience in each place."

Freudenberg said her family has had numerous positive experiences with the program, as both a host family to five international students and as the parent of an outbound teenager.

"Our daughter, Anne, was outbound to Belgium," she said. "It was a fantastic experience. She traveled there during her gap year between her senior year of high school and first year of college. When she came home, she knew exactly what she wanted to do and is now an international student recruiter for a university," she said.

Freudenberg said the experience helped her daughter understand first-hand what it's like to live in a foreign country, which makes it easier for her to meet the needs of the students she is helping.

"It's a wonderful experience. To quote the Nike motto: "Just do it,'" Freudenberg said.