YFU orientation and more deep breathing

Frankly, this is where the experience became a bit rough. As mentioned before, Youth For Understanding (YFU) is run locally by volunteers. Your experience with YFU may vary greatly from someone else's in a different region.

YFU participants (including Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange recipients) are required to attend a local pre-departure orientation. Our local orientation was held in mid-May, and we received the information only about 2 weeks before the event.

Approximately 15 participants and their families were at the event, and the participants were all going to a variety of countries, with Germany being the top destination. Many of the students "knew" each other through the group chat on Facebook -- something that my daughter had not joined. I definitely recommend your child join the group chat immediately; the students who had been chatting online were instantly comfortable with each other.

The students went off to another room, and the parents stayed with a YFU volunteer. I watched a room full of parents go from slightly nervous to almost psychotic in a matter of 45 minutes. It quickly became apparent that, not only were we not going to get any definite information, we were getting a lot of conflicting (and downright wrong) information. Parents essentially stopped listening to the YFU volunteer, broke off into little groups, and exchanged information.

Can you understand now why I think this blog is important?

I will not go into the details as it is not my intention to embarrass or ridicule YFU. Here is the what I want you to know - - no matter how organized or disorganized your local YFU network is, ultimately your child is going to be in the hands of a different YFU network in a different country. This adventure is not for the weak of heart. If your child does not have common sense or cannot speak up for himself or herself, please reconsider sending them abroad.

In YFU's defense, it is difficult to provide relevant information to students going to many different destinations. My daughter did say that she found the student activities (mostly focused on culture shock and host family interactions) helpful. Additionally, there is a National Pre-Departure Orientation (NPDO) in mid-July near Chicago, which goes more in-depth about specific destinations. The NPDO costs (excluding travel to Chicago) are included for YFU participants, but not for CBYX scholarship recipients. My daughter was unable to attend this orientation.