Welcome to our new YE student, Nevyn! From Switzerland!
How much can you get done in 24 hours? Some days, more than others. How about picking up your entire life, pack it into 2 suitcases and a backpack, and travel through 4 countries and 5 airports to start a year full of new, exciting, uncomfortable, and sometimes scary experiences. Well that’s exactly what our new exchange student, Nevyn, experienced on his first of many new experiences.
Joining us from Switzerland, Nevyn started his first day of the next 365 day adventure with our club, our culture, and our country. He joins the ranks of 9000 other students embarking on their first of many journeys. A journey who’s goal is to build peace one young person at a time. Nevyn is excited to start school and start football this fall! Come to our meeting September 10th to learn more about Nevyn!
Please add any photos you capture with Nevyn throughout his year here in Wisconsin!
Eugene, Clara, Mikolaj, Eryn, Hagen, Mari, Ida, Nevyn. What do all these names have in common? All of them have been exchange students through Rotary After Hours, both inbound and outbound.
It’s hard to summarize the impact of Youth Exchange on the student’s life. It touches every aspect of your life and changes the student in ways that are hard to put into words. It gives you new experiences (both good and bad), new family and friends, new language skills, and new ideas about the world and your place in it. It can change the entire direction of your life. All at the age of 15 to 19.
Youth Exchange has been a large part of the RAH initiative for a long time. Likewise, Youth Exchange has been a large initiative of Rotary International for a long time. Rotary was founded in 1905 with the first exchange starting in 1927 in Copenhagen, Denmark, followed closely by a program set up by Nice, France in 1929. These first exchanges looked very different to those that happen now, only taking place during school breaks. The first full year exchange started in 1958 with a student traveling from Scottsbluff, Nebraska to Myrtleford, Australia and two students traveling from Myrtleford, Australia to Grand Lake, Colorado. In 1962, Japan and Germany were included into the program after tense relations following World War II. Since its inception, there are now 80 countries included in the program sending and hosting nearly 9,000 students annually. Now, 9,000 sounds like a lot, and it is. But that number comes from only 7.8% of all Rotary Clubs in the world participating in the Youth Exchange Program.
As we rocket through August into another new school year, 9,000 new students are taking on Rotary’s Mission of Peace through Understanding. If we can make that kind of an impact on the world with only 7.8% of clubs participating, imagine the impact with 10% or 15%. Imagine the impact of 100%.
