YOUTH EXCHANGE IN HAMILTON, OHIO

HAMILTON — Members of the Hamilton Rotary Club plan to spend some time next week sharing with area students what they describe as an “opportunity of a lifetime” — participating in the Rotary Youth Exchange program.

For more than 75 years, students and host families have participated in the program. More than 80 countries and 8,000 students each year participate in the exchange administered at the regional level by Rotary districts and at the local level by Rotary clubs.

“Students live with a host family and become part of their culture, understanding the heritages and similarities that we all share,” said Tim Naab, co-chairman of the Hamilton Rotary Youth Exchange. Outbound Programs offer students from Hamilton or Badin high schools 10-month and six-week programs.

To qualify, students must be at least 16 and take a Rotary International questionnaire, which speaks to a number of criteria including family and academics and interest in traveling abroad.

“The end result ascertains their maturity level and their ability to say ‘yes, we want to experience the opportunity to live in a foreign country and life away from home as we have known it,’” Naab said.

Hamilton resident Stephanie Hancock lived in Thailand for 10 months last year as a Rotary Exchange student.

In spite of some of the challenges Hancock faced, such as “being confused all the time on a whole different level and getting lost on a nature trail the day I turned 18,” she said she believes she is all the better for the experience.

“It is something she can share for the rest of her life and Stephanie found that even the folks in Thailand have the same hopes and desires for their future,” Naab said.

The financial commitment for the student to go abroad is the responsibility of the family and includes the cost of airfare, he said.

Students are ambassador, and “we find that they never forget their 10 months abroad and their experiences stay with them for the rest of their lives.”

One student who participated in the program told Naab that “if we exchange students that are here could take our friendships back home there would never be another world war.”