​Meredith Rotary Youth Exchange Program Seeks Host Families
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March 5, 2019 – If you live in the Inter-Lakes school district, and have room in your home and space in your heart, please consider serving as a host family for our Rotary international exchange student for the 2019-2020 school year.
Our incoming student will live with two families that each host for five months, one from mid-to-late August through mid-January, and the second family from mid-January through late-June.  Single-person homes to families with multiple siblings can all serve as loving and learning experiences for an exchange student. And you, in return, will also experience love and learning, insight and new understanding that can expand your world in many ways.
Our exchange student will likely be enrolled as a Junior or Senior at ILHS and range from 16 to 18 years in age. If you can imagine being that age and dropped into a foreign country to go to school, take classes in another language and adapt to the new culture and expected norms, it takes a person with confidence, a sense of adventure, and the ability to learn and adapt quickly. Our exchange students are all that and more. He or she will fully participate in classes and may participate with various school sport teams or other school groups.  They are here to try all sorts of new experiences of life in New Hampshire, including a loving host family experience.
Essentially, he or she would become like a son or daughter to you and as a brother or sister to you own children while in your home. You would provide the same for them as you would your own, although the Rotary club provides a monthly allowance to the student for personal expenses. Even though a student may be old enough to drive, exchange students in our program are prohibited from driving, so transportation would be part of their needs. We have several club members who can help with that as well, if necessary.
Dean Gulezian has been the Youth Exchange Officer for the Meredith Rotary club for the past seven years, and has been deeply involved in the program not only at our club level, but District level as well.  He can tell you from all these experiences over the past seven years that getting to know these amazing young people is fun, educational, and mostly it’s incredibly inspiring. It is also how we all can contribute to a world with better understanding and respect between people and cultures. He is betting that you too will have similar feelings of passion about this program and the life-changing experiences it gives everyone involved. 
If you are interested in being a host family for the 2019-2020 academic school year or learning more about the program, please contact Dean as soon as possible, and not later than March 21.  His phone numbers are: H: 603-677-7172 and C: 631-235-8654.  His e-mail is: dean.gulezian@gmail.com.