Welcome Kim! A Rotary Youth Exchange (RYE) student from Thailand, Kritsadiphat “Kim” Thongdong—pictured here with his host parents—is spending the school year at Telluride High and generously hosted by Dawn Davis, Dylan Brooks, and their sons Philip and Theo. Philip recently returned from a year in Austria as a RYE student. Another Telluride student, Liam Intemann, also spent last year abroad as a RYE student in Argentina.Telluride Rotary Club annually sends one or two high school students abroad on Rotary Youth Exchange, and welcomes one foreign student into our community. For the 2023-24 school year, we're excited to sponsor Telluride High students Mesa Barnes and Macy McRoberts to spend a school year abroad, living with host families. Mesa will go to Colombia, and Macy to Romania.
Rotary Youth Exchange enhances peace and international understanding by hosting high school students abroad to experience different cultures. To make this life-changing program work, we need host families! Host families host an exchange student for approximately three months. While it’s helpful to be a household with a high school student, families with younger kids, or empty-nester couples or single households also are welcome to apply to host. For more info see mountainandplainsrye.com and contact our club’s Rotary Youth Exchange officer Patricia Kiernan kiernanpatricia6@gmail.com.
Students who are interested in applying to go abroad on Rotary Youth Exchange also should visit the website mountainandplainsrye.com. The program is accepting applications from high school sophomores and juniors to live abroad for the 2024-25 school year, and applications are due by December 1.
Through Rotary Youth Exchange, Rotary clubs build cross-cultural ties and create international ambassadors of goodwill and understanding.
Pictured here (L-R): Macy McRoberts, THS student who’s in Romania; Annemarie Davidova, a RYE student from the Czech Republic who lived with host families in Telluride during the 2022-23 school year; and Mesa Barnes, a THS student spending the year in Colombia.