Rotary Youth Exchange (RYE)

Visit new destinations, learn about a new country/ culture and share the Rotary Experience Internationally! 

Rotary Youth Exchange’s purpose is to:
Build peace and world understanding one exchange at a time
Expose participants to a different culture, one of the most powerful ways to promote international understanding.

The Youth Exchange provides thousands of young students with the opportunity to meet people from other countries and to experience new cultures, planting the seeds for a lifetime of international understanding. RYE offers numerous benefits to its young participants and their Rotarian hosts and mentors, as well as to the community at large.

Student Benefits
-- Student participants learn firsthand about all aspects of life in another country.
-- Immersion in another country’s educational system enhances their academic and personal growth.
-- Getting to know their Host Rotary Club and learning the benefits of being a Rotarian and service above self.

Host Clubs and Families Benefits
-- A Host Family benefits by helping a host student explore activities and events around a new city such as dinner out, a cultural event or visiting a local museum or art exhibition. 
--Host Families and Clubs have the opportunity to mentor a young student about the benefits of Rotary and value of service in any community.

If you are in the Kansas City Metro Region and would like to be a host family or RYE student participant, contact the District Rotary International Youth Exchange Director, Steven Wheatley, wheatleydc@sbcglobal.net.