YFU - Youth For Understanding

Youth For Understanding (YFU) is a non-profit educational organization which offers opportunities for young people around the world to spend a summer, semester or year with a host family in another culture.

Becoming a YFU Exchange Student
Youth For Understanding (YFU) offers programs for students between the ages of 15 and 18. Many students between the ages of 18 and 21 are also eligible Students need to be communicative, interactive, motivated, and out-going, as well as willing and able to face challenges.

Each student stays with a host family, learning to appreciate a new way of living as no tourist ever could. Being a member of a host family in a foreign country is the most intensive way of absorbing a new culture through participation in everyday life. To live in a totally different environment demands a deeper interest than just wanting to visit.

Living outside of one's home country offers an objective view of the home country that will help students to participate in and appreciate more consciously their home countries. An exchange not only involves understanding the foreign culture but one's own culture as well.

What Programs Does YFU Offer?
Youth For Understanding participating countries around the world offer a variety of programs for exchange students. Not all programs are available into or out of each country. Contact the National Office in your country to learn about the specific programs YFU has available for you!

Internationally, YFU offers:
* Academic programs which include living as a member of a host family and attending school in the host country for an academic year or semester.
* Non-Academic programs which include living with a host family and participating in the family's summer activities with them.
* Community College program in the United States for students who have completed the secondary school requirements in their home country and wish to obtain some of their university training at a community college in the US. Students live with a host family and participate in all aspects of college life, from attending classes to joining campus clubs and sport teams.