Another Successful Year for YEX: Promising Start for New Short-Term Program
Posted
on Aug 01, 2014
On June 19th, it was a wrap, with the Litchfield-Morris Rotary Club hosting an end-of-the-year picnic for our District’s Youth Exchange (YEX) students, their host families and other Rotarians at the Litchfield Country Club.
This year, we hosted students from Brazil, Spain, Ecuador, France, and Venezuela. The students got an insider’s look at our country, learned English and made new life-long friends. They also participated in a wide range of activities, like performing at Carnegie Hall, vacationing in Hawaii and participating in high school sports that aren’t available in their home countries.
And now we’re welcoming home students from Agawam, New Milford, Northampton, and Great Barrington who studied abroad for a year on YEX. Each of these youths is returning to our District fluent in a new language, in touch with another culture, and appreciative of the extraordinary opportunities afforded them by Rotarians throughout Northern Connecticut and Western Massachusetts.
Also this summer, our District has sent two girls from Simsbury on the new Short Term Program. This is an opportunity for young people to participate in a brief family-to-family exchange during the summer months. Our girls are currently visiting Belgium and Spain. Next month they will return to Connecticut with their foreign host sisters, who will spend a week visiting the U.S.
District YEX Chair Rich Friedman points out that the Short Term program is especially easy for clubs to administer as there’s no expense for the clubs, little paperwork, and no requirement to find host families. “Clubs that want to change kids’ lives should really consider participating in our District’s Youth Exchange programs,” said Friedman.
Sound interesting? Learn how your club can get involved. Give Rich Friedman a call at (612) 202-1995, or email him at richefriedman@yahoo.com.