Kath Koch, our District's YEP Committee Chair, presented a well-prepared outline of the Rotary International Youth Exchange Program (YEP). Did you know YEP has been going since 1975? Since then, over 8,100 young (and very "switched on") students spent a full year abroad, completing their year 11 or 12 not only away from home, but in a country where the school's language is NOT English, or if they are in-coming, where their mother tongue is NOT English. Now, that might sound rather daunting. Yet, we observed the two guests Kath brought along, Marlene from Germany and Mikkel from Denmark (photo): their brief presentation once again proved the immense value of YEP: the gaining of self-confidence. Every YEP student I've met, upon their return had an air of "there is nothing you can confront me with that I can't handle". That is a skill that cannot be taught in a class room.Our club has not only placed but also hosted numerous YEP students over the years, although COVID seems to have put a sudden stop to that. In recent years, we had Alyssa Lott (2019, to USA), Ayani Sedaka (2019, from Japan), Lucy Thorburn (2018, to USA), Felicity Cooper (2015 to Finland), Gabrielle Burey (2015 to Germany) Martina Missarelli (2016, from Italy), Laura Burtscher (2014, from Austria) are just a few that come to mind.
The statistics are immense - download Kath's PowerPoint from the Download section on the right. The costs to the Rotary clubs are not very high (around $150 per month pocket money, plus School Uniforms and other school costs if applicable), as the major expenses (around $10,500) are covered by the student's parents or sponsors.
Finding hosts is always one of the major obstacles faced by clubs that have "above average age" members. But it needn't be: Generally, only two hosts need to be found internally, and even that can be overcome. Can Surfers Sunrise again become involved?