Telluride Rotary Club is excited to bring back our club’s participation in Rotary Youth Exchange for the 2022-23 school year, after a two-year hiatus due to covid. The Telluride community has a long tradition of sending local high school students abroad for a year of study and hosting foreign exchange students, whose presence enriches the classrooms and community by sharing their perspectives and culture. Through Rotary Youth Exchange, Rotary clubs build cross-cultural ties and create international ambassadors of goodwill and understanding.

To make this great program happen in the coming school year, our club must find host families for an inbound foreign student; otherwise, we cannot send a local student abroad, because the program functions as a two-way exchange. We have two families interested so far and need one more household to host in spring 2023.

Host families volunteer to host a high school student for approximately 3.5 months, providing room and board. Rotary pays for the inbound student's school and incidental expenses, so the financial burden on the host family is minimal. This is an enriching experience for any household, as you share your family traditions and American culture while learning about theirs. While it is optimal to have host families with a student at Telluride Middle/High School, it’s not necessary; host families can have younger children, be empty-nesters or be single parents. Hosting takes place during these flexible time frames: early August through Thanksgiving; Thanksgiving through February: March through mid-June.

If this is an opportunity that interests you, please contact our club’s Rotary Youth Exchange Officer Patricia Kiernan, kiernanpatricia6@gmail.com or 619-517-5336, soon; or you may direct general questions to telluriderotary@gmail.com. Find out more about Rotary Youth Exchange and being a host family at mountainandplainsrye.com.

Pictured at right: 2019-20 youth exchange student Maile Silva of Telluride High who studied in the Czech Republic & Slovakia.