Recently I had the opportunity to accompany Bob Rauner, our District Youth Exchange Chair along with Rotarians Roxy Orr, JoAnne Peters and Chris Reed to the South Central Rotary Youth Exchange Conference in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
We all came in a van along with 7 “inbound” exchange students and 2 former “outbound” exchange students who were helping with crowd control. There were over 200 exchange students attending.
There were tracks (activities for the youth) and meetings for the adults. Our district is one of 37 across 18 states in this consortium of Rotary Youth Exchange Programs.
Not sure why its called South Central as it reaches all the way to Canada! Hierarchically, SCRYE is part of an even larger organization called the North American Youth Exchange Network (NAYEN). Every year SCRYE holds a Winter and Summer event and helps with “an end of year” bus tour many students sign up for.
Steve Gerdes from out district was also there and he is the President-elect for SCRYE.