After nearly one full year of preparation, Georgia's very first class of Future Outbound Candidates graduated today to receive the official, prestigious, title of Rotary Youth Exchange Students. These 10 amazing Georgia high school students will represent Georgia's Rotary District 6900 for one academic year in another country. Pictured here are Granger-France, Kate-Mexico, Ellie-Sweden, Henry-Thailand, Olivia-Finland, Kennedy-Brazil, Yasmeen-Taiwan, Alex-Japan, and Nikki-Bosnia. Not pictured, Pessi-Thailand.

Granger West, of Walton High School, Outbound to France, sponsored by the Rotary Club of East Cobb, explains to the group what he has learned about ethnocentrism and ethno-relativism.

Alex Flanagan, of Riverwood International Charter School, Outbound to Japan, sponsored by the Rotary Club of Sandy Springs, practices newly learned cultural adaptation skills.

District 6900’s first class of Rotary Youth Exchange Scholarship students have spent the last eight months preparing for the experience of a lifetime. In the next few weeks, these extraordinary high school students from the greater Atlanta area will depart for an academic year abroad, living with local families selected by Rotary, and attending local high schools, while becoming fluent in a new language, and living Rotary values every day.

To prepare for their year abroad, Georgia’s Rotary Youth Exchange students have spent the last eight months studying all things Rotary, the language and culture of their assigned country, as well as presentation, cultural and resiliency skills. Our students took part in two formal training sessions in Lake Yale, Florida, together with nearly 100 other Rotary Youth Exchange students from Florida. They have visited many Rotary meetings and participated actively in the Rotary International Convention in Atlanta. Each student prepared a detailed research paper on their assigned country, and Rotary’s role in that country, and have achieved at least a conversational level of fluency in their target language. After completing their final assignments and successfully completing workshops on culture and learning to adapt to other cultures, our students became qualified to graduate, and they earned the right to wear the prestigious Rotary blue blazer that identifies Rotary Youth Exchange students around the world.

The Rotary Youth Exchange program is one of the world’s largest and most prestigious high school exchange programs. Each year, nearly 9000 high school students qualify and participate in the program.Rotary clubs in District 6900 may award the Rotary Youth Exchange Scholarship, valued at over $24,000 to talented, qualified high school students in their community, at no cost to the local Rotary club. Children and grandchildren of Rotarians may apply to participate in the program as well. For more information, please visit our District 6900 Rotary Youth Exchange website at Rotary6900.org/RYE .