Hood River Rotary Club is seeking candidates to study abroad with Rotary Youth Exchange.
Applicants must be sophomores in high school as of September 2019. Both short-term and long-term programs are available. Long-term exchanges occur during the 2020-2021 academic year; short-term exchanges take place the summer of 2020.
In both cases, students are matched with Rotary-approved families in Europe, Asia or South America. The short-term exchanges last about four weeks and are reciprocal; any American who is hosted abroad must host their foreign counterpart in return.
Long-term exchange families are also encouraged to host a foreign student for approximately 100 days, but it is not mandatory.
Applicants must complete an application, submit a short essay and have a GPA of 3.0 or higher. Interested students should send an email to the Hood River Rotary Club Youth Exchange Officer, Jean Sheppard, at Jean.sheppard@icloud.com.
Applications are due no later than Sept. 13.
By Sept. 30, Rotary will select one long-term exchange student and one alternate long-term exchange student. The number of short-term exchange students is not limited.
The long-term exchange fee is paid by the club; the short-term exchange fee is $450. Both exchanges require payment for airfare and spending money.
Financial assistance and fundraising opportunities are available based on need, said a press release.
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