Effectiveness of Club Guidelines when dealing with a Problem Student Lawrence Shue YEC Chair RI D3480 TAIWAN June , Salt Lake City

General Issues Faced by Students Cultural Shock Homesickness Language barrier Doesn’t meet expectations of hosts, and vice-versa Inadequate school/class level Cannot integrate well into host environment Poor contacts to host club/insufficient counseling Poor adaptation due to changing families Violation of rules by student ……..

Our Ways to Face These Issues Prevention is the best policy To spot a problem and deal it at an earlier stage All parties involved in YEP must work together to deal with an already developed problem

PREVENTION IS THE BEST POLICY Outbounds Orientation Parents Orientation Club Counselors Training

PREVENTION IS THE BEST POLICY Outbounds Orientation A 3-day training program focusing on: - Rules and regulations of exchange - Culture tolerance - EQ control and conflicts resolution - Roles and responsibility of exchange - Advanced preparation for a Rotary Ambassador of Goodwill - ROTEX experiences sharing

PREVENTION IS THE BEST POLICY Parents Orientation - Outbounds orientation - Roles and responsibility of the parents - Corresponding with the student - Parents visits - How to cooperate with Club and District to solve the student problem * Students usually tell parents the problem first, so the parents will have a major impact on how their children deal it

PREVENTION IS THE BEST POLICY Club Counselors Training An experienced and well-trained counselor can effectively assist the students. - 4 Seminars per year are held, all the counselors must attend : to share views on how to best help students integrate and cope with the host environment

EARLY DETECTION & EARLY TREATMENT Problems can be detected at an early stage by - Students are requested to send a “ monthly report” to their sending district, club and parents - Students are encouraged to maintain a weekly “ Blog” to present their weekly experiences - “ communication” between students & parents

- These reports, diaries or communication can often show early indications of the emotion or state of mind of the students which can be detected especially by the parents - Parents can have immediate counseling with or without the help from the club counselor or YEO before it is too late EARLY DETECTION & EARLY TREATMENT -cont.

PROBLEM SOLUTION Step 1 : Advise club counselor and birth parents to communicate the hosts and student overseas for details

PROBLEM SOLUTION Step 2 : District contact, birth parents, club counselor and the hosts get consensus regarding the nature of the problem and the best ways to deal with it.

PROBLEM SOLUTION Step 3 : District contact, birth parents and club counselor work together with the hosts to enlighten the student to improve the situation

PROBLEM SOLUTION Step 4 : Should all efforts failed, and we decide to terminate the exchange, the students will be carefully counseled by the hosting district to explain the reasons; the sending district will further counsel after return to the country of origin.

Examples Example 1 Parents involve too deeply Example 2 Violation of rules/Clash of opinion Example 3 Language Barrier

Summary 1.Parents are usually the first to know the problems, ensure the parents have sufficient knowledge about the problem and best help the student 2.Counselors can best help parents to deal with the children’s problem

Summary-cont. 3.Paramount in solving problems is : mutual trust among parents, hosts, sending districts and clubs 4.It is more difficult to deal with the adults than exchange students about their problems. All the adults involved in YEP, as well as the students must be thoroughly trained in the program

Summary-cont. 5.Effective resolution of students’ problems : - Prevention is the best policy - Deal with the problems at an early stage - All parties involved in YEP must work together to deal with already- developed problems ~The End~ Thank you for your attention