Britt Etheredge is the co-chair of the Exchange Student Program for our Rotary district, and provided information to our club about the program. Britt is a member of the New Braunfels club, and has been involved in the youth exchange for a number of years. His family first hosted a student in 2008, and has hosted five students since.
There are 8,000 exchange students worldwide, and on average, 800 participate from the United States. In our district, there are four inbound and four outbound students this year, and seven planned for next year.
A typical exchange student process involves a Rotary Club like ours accepting a student for about a nine moth period, roughly coinciding with the school year. A student lives with a host family for roughly three months at a time, and then rotates to another family. Host families can be Rotarians, but often times are just families in the community who are willing to host a student. Our last two exchange students spent part of their time with host families from outside Rotary, and were very successful.
The host families are varied in age and makeup, and can be families with younger kids, high school age, or no kids at all.
Please contact any member of the executive board if you are interested in hosting an exchange student.
Brooke Sibert, daughter of Rotarian John Sibert, also shared some information about her experience as an exchange student in France last summer, and was very appreciative of the program.
