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Paragould Club Grows Through Youth Exchange |
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By Patty Willoughby, Rotary Club of Paragould, Arkansas, USA, District 6150
Rotary Youth Exchange Quick Facts:
Years program has been in existence >75
Countries involved > 80
Students participating every year > 8,000
Costs are low because volunteer Rotarians administer the program
Learn more here.
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The Youth Exchange program is a wonderful example of how our Rotary club can change a young person’s life forever. It’s also an excellent approach to pave the way for growing our organization. As students are exposed to the program, they learn about Rotary and what we do. During this process, families are also exposed to the world of Rotarians. The benefits are outstanding. Last year, after agreeing to be a host family for our first in-bound long-term student, Mike Skelton joined our family of Rotarians.
This year, our club is very fortunate to have five Paragould students participating in the short-term program and one student participating in the long-term outbound program. None of these children come from homes where the parents are Rotarians. During the exchange process the students, their parents and other family members will be introduced to Rotary in a very unique way, allowing them to personally see the difference Rotary makes in their lives. Think about this… six high school students that will most likely consider becoming Rotarians in the future, and at least twelve adults that could decide to join our club today! Additionally, we need to recruit two more host families for the in-coming long-term student. The first host family is not involved in Rotary (yet), so we can add another couple to the potential new member list.
In the very near future we will have five students visiting Paragould from foreign lands (each for a 3 to 4 week period). In addition, in August we will have a long-term student arriving from Switzerland to spend the 2009/2010 school year with us. It’s a very exciting time for our club, our community and our country. You can be a part of the excitement too! When students and family members visit our club, make them feel welcome. Offer to include them in any activities you and your family might be doing. Consider being a host family for our long-term student. If you can provide a student a loving home for 3 months, you can help them learn about your way of life while you and your family learn about life in Switzerland!
Next week, you will get to meet our out-bound students and hear a little about their hopes and expectations for their upcoming exchanges. We hope you’ll encourage them to enjoy this time in their life and we hope that you will consider being a part of this program in some way. Please contact Patty Willoughby or Neely Branch for more information.
Short-term out-bound students
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Destination
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In-bound students
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Andrea Hasik
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Italy
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Annalisa DiCorcia
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Fallyn Davenport
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Italy
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Marzia Pagini
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Haley Joiner
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Finland
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Julia Forsten
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Colton Holder
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Belgium
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Quentin Lagasse
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Morgan Ashley Draper
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France
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Charlotte Drosdalski
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Long-term out-bound students
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Destination
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In-bound students
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Katelyn Mangrum
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Switzerland
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Jean-Philippe Levy
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Learn more about Rotary Youth Exchange programs here.
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#3: by Patty Willoughby on 07.14.2009 @ 04:27pm CDT
Merle,
Finding host families has been one of the most challenging portions of this program for our club, too. I have found it beneficial to share the student's application information with families when trying to recruit hosts. I have also had assistace from the Interact sponsor in matching up the student to families that we know have similar interests or children with similar interests. It is helpful to know families that have hosted students before. They may be interested again or can encourage others to host students.
I don't know if this will help you, but if I can help answer anything else, please let me know. Don Peters is really the expert. He has been a huge supporter for me! |
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#2: by Merle Williams on 07.14.2009 @ 03:34pm CDT
Patty, You and your club are doing so well and your kids seems so excited about their programs. As you know, we are attempting to get three families to volunteer to take a long term student for this school year but so far have not had any responses. would you give me some tips on how to gender up some volunteer families? Merle |
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#1: by Sam Hummelstein on 06.04.2009 @ 05:17pm CDT
Patty, thanks so much for sharing your club's experience. What a great reminder of how our efforts in one area can multiply into many others. For those of us who first experienced Rotary from the non-member side, I can attest to the power of learning about Rotary from the outside and then wanting to join and remain active. |
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