This is an important interview.  Dress accordingly.

The interview panel will consist of 3-4 Rotarians, ALL OF WHOM want you to have a successful interview.  Do not be afraid of them!  They will take turns asking you a variety of questions.  Remember to SMILE and look the panelists IN THE EYES when you are responding to questions.  Keep your answers relatively short and to the point.

The interview will proceed as follows:

• .  the first 25 minutes will be with the student
• .  the next 10 minutes will be with the parents
• .  the last 10 minutes will be with the student AND parents

Before and after your interview, you will have the opportunity to meet and talk to former or current youth exchange students and, perhaps, other Youth Exchange Committee members.

Before the day of your interview, talk to a member of your sponsoring club about Rotary or visit the Rotary website at www.rotary.org.   We want to know that you have a general understanding of what Rotary is all about.  You WILL be asked what you know about Rotary in the interview.  

Parents…….your responses are also important.  The committee wants to know that you fully support this exchange and will help your child to have a successful experience.  The exchange will not happen if you are not fully behind it.

After all students have been interviewed, they will be “ranked” by the Interview Panel. These rankings will be forwarded to the District Committee, which will take the rankings into consideration when making country assignments.

WHAT’S NEXT – AFTER THE INTERVIEW?

Within a few days you will be notified if you have been selected as an Outbound CANDIDATE.  You MAY also be advised of your POSSIBLE country assignment.  (Country assignments can not be guaranteed until an exchange agreement has been finalized with the hosting county.)  Although we try to assign students to one of their “preferred” countries, this does not always happen.  We hope that all students will be flexible and accept their assignments, as the exchange experience will be life changing regardless of where you go.  However, should you decide to turn down your assigned country, you may – or may not – be offered another option.  Much depends on how many exchanges we are able to arrange (which depends on how many Rotary clubs in our District are willing to host an inbound student) and which countries want to exchange with us this year.  This varies from year to year.

You may be selected as an “alternate”, which means that you will be placed on a waiting list in the event that one of the selected students withdraws from the exchange.  (This happens quite frequently, so don’t give up if you are on the alternate list).  Once the exchange has been confirmed with the hosting country, the student will be contacted by a member of the Youth Exchange Committee who will provide assistance throughout the remainder of the process.

All students accepted into the program are considered “conditional” until they have completed the ENTIRE orientation process which ends the weekend of the District Conference in May.