Telluride Rotary Club is proud to sponsor Rotary Youth Exchange, sending one or two high school students abroad and hosting a foreign student in Telluride for the school year. If you are a high school student interested in going abroad for the 2025-26 school year, applications are due soon—Nov. 1. For information, go to mountainandplainsrye.com and contact our club’s RYE officer Patricia Kiernan kiernanpatricia6@gmail.com.
This year, our club has welcomed Paul from Austria to be the inbound student for the 2024-25 school year. Paul (pictured here, being greeted by Telluride Rotarians at the airport) is attending Telluride High and being hosted by local families.Last year, our club arranged for two Telluride High students to spend the year studying and living abroad. At our October 2 club meeting, Macy McRoberts (pictured here) and Mesa Barnes gave impressive and engaging presentations on their school year abroad with Rotary Youth Exchange. Macy spent the year in Romania, while Mesa spent her year in Colombia. Both described the experiences of living with host families, attending local schools, becoming nearly fluent in the language, spending time with other exchange students, and learning a great deal about the country and region’s culture. Both girls wore the traditional blazer decorated with a multitude of pins collected during their travel, which is one of the traditions of Rotary Youth Exchange (RYE).
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.