Youth exchange (YEX) has long been a principal way that Rotary International promotes peach through friendship and cultural understanding. Rhinebeck Rotarian Mike Frazier is the coordinator for District 7210 of a new way for Rotary to support international youth exchanges, known as summer youth exchange or more formally as short-term youth exchange. In this program a family from one country exchanges for a few weeks or a month with a family from the other country. This is different from the regular school-year exchange in which the student who is incoming from another country or outgoing to one stays with three different host families; there is no reciprocal arrangement. The school-year exchange includes learning the language of the country visited, which is not a part of the short-term exchange. In both programs, a host Rotary Club must sponsor the exchange and the applicants are vetted both by the locals clubs and YEX officers from the District.
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