Tell Me About International Exchange Programs

[CoLd BlooDed]

I've recently been thinking a lot about doing exchange programs, and I was wondering if anyone here has gone through the process of actually travelling to another country for work, school, volunteer, and so on and so forth. Australia is a place I'm seriously considering at the moment (been doing a bunch of online research). Thanks guys.

[wasup]

They are awesome! This summer I am spending 2 months in Argentina and I plan to spend a year in Taiwan or China after high school. These two things I am doing with Rotary... which I highly recommend you use (more below). Last summer I went to ecuador for about 5 weeks, though not with Rotary. There I volunteered (met awesome people), took spanish "classes" (they weren't classes in the sense they were much work, just talking in spanish with some language points and them correcting me occasionally). I also lived with a host family, which is a big plus (especially if you are considering learning a language, but obviously not in your case). With Rotary... the first thing that comes to mind is that it is extremely cheap. It is not-for-profit... everyone involved is pretty much a volunteer and the only thing you pay for is plane tickets, some random charges, and insurance. For a year it comes out to be like 4000 dollars. I'm spending 2 months in Argentina and not including plane tickets it only cost me about 300 dollars or so. They match you up with a host family and you stay with them so it's pretty great. It's a ton of fun, for sure. I defintely recommend it.

[CoLd BlooDed]

Is Rotary only with American citizens? Thanks for the information, though.

[wasup]

Nope, Rotary is an international program. Kids from hundreds of countries all over the world sign up to go to hundreds of other countries

[CoLd BlooDed]

Right on, just did some google searches. Do you have to be a student to enlist yourself in Rotary? I checked and most of them are student programs, and I graduate in two weeks... I would love to do work or volunteer hours, if anything. How did you get the volunteer work one?

[wasup]

Oh... well, depending on your age you might be too old for the program especially by the time you sign up. You don't necessarily have to be a student, but for most of them the max age (by the time you leave) has to be 18-19 years old, and it takes a long time to sign up for it (as in, I doubt you can go now because it is so late in the year). For the volunteer work one, I researched on my own for "spanish schools" in Ecuador and there was a volunteer program. I mostly did it because I had to have volunteer hours for my high school, but it was still really fun (and the guy's daughter who I did work for was super super hot....). Anyways, I just found a program that had classes, volunteer work optional and I could stay with a host family. If I were you I'd try to research some programs to do volunteer work in Australia. Perhaps something like habitat (http://www.habitat.org/intl/ap/12.aspx) or something like that. I looked at the Peace Corps website, but they don't offer Australia as a country, not to mention I heard that you can't choose where you go?