Long Term Youth Exchange Application
Dear Rotary Youth Exchange Applicant:
It is a wonderful adventure you are about to embark on with Rotary Youth Exchange (RYE)! Your Youth Exchange Officer (YEO) will be happy to assist you with any questions you may encounter while filling out this application. For the 2024-25 school year: the long-term application process is all online:
When you initially sign up at the above link, you will receive an email that contains a password - this password then needs to be used for future logins to complete more information, so please store it in a safe place!
Please read through the directions below at least twice before starting your online application, and keep them open in a separate browser tab as you fill out the online application. Remember: you don’t need to fill out all the pages of the online application at once - you can save at any point and then come back later to continue filling out more information.
The online application process will ask you to download certain documents (e.g. health forms) have them signed by others and then upload a scanned copy. All signatures must be in blue ink. So please make sure to inform others who will be signing different parts of your application. Then upload a color-scan of the document. Those should be real scans - not just photos you take with your cell phone.
As you fill out the various steps of the online application process, your YEO will see your progress in our YEO portal app, and we will be able to assist you, if you have any questions.
APPLICATION - PLEASE FOLLOW THESE DIRECTIONS:
Page 1: Applicant Information, Parent/Legal Guardian Information, Sponsor District and Rotary Club:
Fill in all the information about yourself and your family. The sponsor district, 7950, information is as follows and the club information is dependent on where you live. In addition you will have to upload a photo of yourself to page one of the application.
Youth Exchange Chair: Stephen Albright
Email Address: salbri91@aol.com
Home Phone: 508-778-2890
Cell Phone: 508-916-1617
Page 2: Personal Background and Siblings:
Fill in all the information about yourself and your siblings.
Page 3: Secondary School Information, Languages and Alternative Emergency Contact:
Please provide your high school information including the website and all other information.
Please provide details about your education. For some of the questions on this page you will need to speak with your school counselor or principal to gather the required information.
You will also need to list an emergency contact other than your parents.
Page 4: Student Letter to Hosts:
Your letter needs to be grammatically correct and interesting. This is what introduces you to your host country, host district, host club, and host family. This is probably the most important piece of your application. Make sure that your letter is at least two full pages. The quality of your letter greatly influences your placement! We will help you with that process, and you may be asked to make changes by your YEO or a District team member. Pro Tip: write a draft of your letter in a word processing program, such as Google Docs or Microsoft Word and utilize the spell & grammar checker. Then copy/paste the final text into the online application.
Page 5 Parent(s) Letter to Hosts:
This letter will be shared with the host Rotary Club and future host families. Ask your parents to write a letter that introduces you to them. Please share the questions from the online application form with your parents, so that they have a reference as to what to write. Ask them to write the letter in a word processing program, and then copy/paste the text into the online application for
Page 6: Photos of Your Life:
Now, we would like you to provide some other photos to better introduce yourself to the Rotarians and families who will sponsor and host you. Four photos are required:
My Family - a photo that includes members of your immediate family.
My Special Interest - a photo of you participating in your favorite hobby or activity.
Something Important - a photo of your friends, pet, musical instrument, etc.
My Home - a photo of your house or the building where you live.
Describe all the four photos you just uploaded on page 8 to tell us more about them. These photos will also be shared with your host Rotary Club and future host families, so please don’t just write “My Family” in the caption - instead introduce all family members by name. Likewise, for your home and special interest write at least a sentence about what the photo shows.
Congratulations! You've completed the first online part of this application process, but there is still a lot more to do before you can pack your bags and head overseas as a Rotary exchange student. So, what happens next?
→ Your application will be initially reviewed to make sure that it's complete. If any required information is missing, or if you've not yet uploaded your letters or photos, you'll know that immediately.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT:
Once you have submitted the online application and if everything is complete, you'll be sent an e-mail with additional instructions and documents that will require your prompt attention. So be sure to check your e-mail regularly! These documents will include teacher reference letters, healthcare forms, requests for school transcripts, and more.
Please read the following instructions carefully, before you start filling out and uploading these forms:
Medical and Dental forms: At the top of the form fill in District 7950, and your name in this form: Susan Jane JONES (last name capitalized).
Type your physician/dentist's name, address, phone number and fax number on the page before you send it to him/her for signature. Forms with the medical provider's name hand written will be rejected.
Also note that you need to get a TB test from your doctor and these take a few days.
Make sure the doctors signatures are in blue ink. Put a post it note above the signature line, and/or highlight the words “in blue ink” to remind them.
Before uploading the medical form remember that the student and parents need to sign it at the end. Also use blue ink for those signatures, please!
Passport:
You will need to have a passport, so if you do not have one, apply for one immediately. If you already have one, make sure that it will be valid for at least six months after when you will return from exchange (i.e. until January 2026). If it will expire any time before that, apply for a new passport immediately. Only upload a copy of your passport that will be valid beyond January 2026.
School transcript:
You also need to obtain a certified (sealed) transcript from your school. This means with the school seal affixed on it, not in a sealed envelope (although your school will probably give it to you in a sealed envelope.) Don’t worry about taking it out of the envelope as you will need to upload it.
School Reference Letter:
The person you indicate for the reference will receive an email with a link to provide the reference.
All of these documents must be uploaded no later than November 1, 2023.
Our First Round of District Interviews will be held mid November 2023. Time and location to be determined. The interview itself will last for about an hour and both the student and parents are required to attend. Depending upon COVID-19 conditions, we may switch the interview process to an online video-conference via Zoom.
After the interviews there will be a short window when you can supply documents that may have been missing from your application. Any such documents must be sent to the District Chair no later than December 15, 2023. Keep in mind that applications received after the deadline date may reduce your available Country options.
We will continue to accept and process long-term applications until April 30, 2024, but please keep in mind that the country availability continues to decline as time goes on.
You can find a copy of our fee schedule by going to STUDENT and then FEE SCHEDULE on this web site. We will go over these fees at our orientations, but if you have any questions please ask your YEO or contact me. There are some small scholarship funds available from ESSEX which we can help you apply for if needed.
If you have not looked at the rest of our District 7950 Youth Exchange website or the ESSEX website I suggest you make yourself familiar with all the information there. This will be useful as you go forward on your exchange as it has links to the insurance agency (CISI/Bolduc Insurance) and the travel agency (Tzell Youth Exchange) that you will be using.
All of us involved in the Rotary District 7950 Long-Term Youth Exchange Program look forward to working with you and your family and helping you have the most memorable exchange year.