BootsnAll Travel Community

My younger cousins are 14-17 and I'm trying to encourage them to travel and take advantage of school exchanges. The only problem is, their highschools don't have any exchange programs.

Does anyone know how to get hooked up with an outside exchange program? how does it work? What are some affordable options? (The kids are Canadian, fyi)

There's a company called EF that runs out of the US but does exchanges all over the world. I went with them to Canada, and know other canadians who went to Australia. It is expensive.
Other people I know have set up their own exchanges by going to live with distant family, friends or families they have been able to get in contact with through music interest groups.
Another option is to see if their school has a sister school somewhere and whether the sister school would like to do a student swap or have a visiting student for a semester. The school would then probably help find a host family.
The last two options are far more cost effective than the first, though there would be fewer people keeping a sharp eye out for their welfare. But unless they're super crazy, that shouldn't be a problem.

good luck,

emm

Sorry for the mess of a post, I'm in a bit of a rush...

AFS is a place to start they offer some scholarships.

If there is a local chapter of Rotary International, they offer many huge scholarships, as well.

In the US there are other government-funded country spefic exchanges, I don't know about Canada though.

I had a Rotary Scholarship when I was in high school and it was an excellent program. The process can be a little long, but I think that is a *good* thing. By the time that the student actually departs on exchange, they have met other exchange students, past and current, and have a network of people upon whom they can call while on exchange. I highly reccomend Rotary!

I did a year-long exchange in South America with Youth For Understanding when I was in high school:

http://www.yfu.org

I have nothing but good things to say about my experience with them, I can't recommend them highly enough. Lots of support, trips and get-togethers with other exchange students, etc. They also gave me a (need-based) scholarship that covered most of the fees.

I have younger cousins too, and they were always interested in my exchange, but I was never able to talk any of them into trying it out themselves! I agree with you that it's a perfect time to do an exchange, when you're still young enough to just become part of another family. Definitely something I've always been really, really glad that I did.

Oh, and I'm American, by the way, but YFU sends out students from lots of countries. Most of the other YFU exchange students in South America were European.

I know different countries have ambassador programs. You could raise the money for you child to go if you can't afford the cost of the trip. You could have a fundraiser. I know of one woman that did this.

What province are you in?

I went to Germany in grade 11 for three months through British Columbia Hertiage Language Association.

The best way for your cousins to get info is to ask their french/spanish/german etc teachers.