Rotary Youth Exchange Committee held its 1st meeting in months Dec. 1 via Zoom. It was exciting to see returning members since we have NOT worked together since March. We referred to documents that that set out new Rotary policy for Youth Exchange from RI President Holger Knaack* and Bob Heydorn*, Rotary District 6630 Youth Exchange General Chair. There will be no exchanges before Jun 30, 2021. The decision to accept exchanges will be made at that date. Our patience has been alerted and we are working to maintain the momentum the RYE Committee had developed over the last two years hosting two exchange students each year. It’s important that we be ready to help the young people of Akron engage in this life changing experience when the exchange becomes possible. (*These communications were also in the most recent District Newsletter.)
Topics we discussed focused on finding strategies to strengthen the RYE Program during this Stay-at-Home period. We plan to build greater Club knowledge of RYE Program and connect with Interact and RYLA clubs to get the message out to other youths. To do this, we will reach out to former Inbounders (Zoey Mayer, Elin Na and others) so they can attend a Zoom meeting and share (5 minutes) about what they are doing now. We also intend to work with John Margida to invite Rotex (former District Outbound students) to present their experiences to the Club (Audrey Carroll, Viet Nguyen, Auri Gaston, etc.). Another way to reach young people and their parents is to put the message about RYE programs in school districts’ newsletters to parents (Akron, Coventry, Stow, Green, Norton). We’d like to meet with Mark West, District 6630’s person in charge of RYLA, to share information about the Exchange. We intend to reach out to Janice Weaver and Alma De Blasio, Interact Advisors at North High School. It would be wonderful for The Rotary Club of Akron to facilitate a H.S. Interact project to promote International Peace through Exchange.
Topics we discussed focused on finding strategies to strengthen the RYE Program during this Stay-at-Home period. We plan to build greater Club knowledge of RYE Program and connect with Interact and RYLA clubs to get the message out to other youths. To do this, we will reach out to former Inbounders (Zoey Mayer, Elin Na and others) so they can attend a Zoom meeting and share (5 minutes) about what they are doing now. We also intend to work with John Margida to invite Rotex (former District Outbound students) to present their experiences to the Club (Audrey Carroll, Viet Nguyen, Auri Gaston, etc.). Another way to reach young people and their parents is to put the message about RYE programs in school districts’ newsletters to parents (Akron, Coventry, Stow, Green, Norton). We’d like to meet with Mark West, District 6630’s person in charge of RYLA, to share information about the Exchange. We intend to reach out to Janice Weaver and Alma De Blasio, Interact Advisors at North High School. It would be wonderful for The Rotary Club of Akron to facilitate a H.S. Interact project to promote International Peace through Exchange.
Another focus was Protecting Youth Program Participants, a concern that stems from the need for Rotary to send students into a “safe environment.” So, by announcing that there will be no exchanges before June 30, 2021, and that the decision will be made then whether to allow the exchanges to proceed guarantees that Rotary is protecting our young participants. In addition, our Akron Risk Committee will clear any documents that go to members or to the general public.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion was another focus of discussion with ways to include it in our program. We talked about ways to make the program available for a committed student who can’t afford the cost of fees and air transportation, since we have had students in the past who dropped out because of financial challenges. We are looking into multiple ways to address this concern. We would like to see greater diversity of young people applying for the program. We can definitely work with schools and districts to encourage more students to apply if they know there is support there for them.
There is also a new option for students, the virtual exchange. We hope to learn more by talking to Rotarian John Koetz (in Columbus) who has been in charge of virtual exchanges to date. A couple of committee members plan to attend a Webinar on 22 January on this topic. We are also looking at ways to help students become more language proficient before they go abroad or during a virtual exchange.
Another important topic, Develop recruiting strategies, guided our brainstorming. Suggestions ranged from
1) get in contact with all past host families to engage them in supporting our host family recruitment;
2) place notices about our program in local high school or district newsletters regularly to get the contact information out there for hosting, a description of short-term program, a description of long-term program; 3) send articles to local papers like Stow Sentry, the West Ender, etc.; and, 4) bring in past Outbound students (Rotex) to keep the topic on the front burner for the club.
Next meeting in January will be 12th or 19th at 11 am before General Meeting. TBA later.
We are open to new members who would like to work with young people, welcoming them, making certain their experience is going well, helping them get used to the American culture, acting as a guide to Akron’s cultural offering.
If you would like to join us, please contact Susan at: colvillehall2@gmail.com
Committee Members (you can click on names to email them):
- Susan Colville-Hall, Chair
- June Ring
- Brian Kosarko
- Dan O’Connell
- Laura Fink
- Doug Hausknecht
- Jacinto A. Nunez
- Stewart Buchanan
- Brian Chima
- Lynda Farkas
- Rima Muakkassa
Yours in Rotary Service -
Susan Colville-Hall
