The Rotary Club of Copenhagen, Denmark, initiated the first Rotary Youth Exchange in 1927 and the Rotary Club of Nice, France followed suit soon after in 1929. Although exchanges today usually last ten months, the first exchanges took place during school vacations for only a couple weeks. The year-long Rotary Youth Exchange program was created in 1958 in Lake Placid at a Rotary Governors assembly. Here many rules and procedures were established that still exist today. The first exchange students to travel to the U.S. arrived in 1962 with seven students from Europe and Scandinavia including District 6000 hosting a girl from Sweden. This year, approximately 9,000 students will travel between 80 countries including 30-40 to and from District 6000.
The host club is responsible for many of the student's expenses while they are being hosted. Gary Welch presented an estimate of these expenses to the Board at their September meeting. These expenses include:
School Expenses:
- $75 - Book fees
- $55 - Activity Fees
- $783 - Lunch for 180 days
- $60 - Year book
- $50 - Birthday gift
- $50 - Christmas gift
- $675 - Monthly Stipend ($75 x 9)
- $384 - Phone Reimburse ($32 per month)
- $200 - Graduation Party
- $450 - RYLA (If completed)
Total estimated cost for hosting an exchange student - $2,782
