Organise Your Exchange offers organisers and their family a Match and Materials to help them organise their own high school exchange.
When making a match, we look at answers to specific questions in your profile to determine compatibility. There are hard conditions and soft conditions that guide the matching process.
The hard condition questions are:
The soft condition questions are:
The matching process at Organise Your Exchange is designed to connect families based on their preferences and needs. Here’s how it works:
1. Profile approval
Once you’ve submitted your organiser profile, OYE reviews and approves it. After approval, you’ll receive a confirmation email, and your profile will be added to the pool of profiles being considered for matching.
2. Searching for a match
As new profiles are added, we continuously evaluate the pool for potential matches. First, we look at the hard conditions. If these align between two families, we then check how well their soft conditions match. If everything looks good, we propose the match to both organisers.
In some cases, if there are fewer available profiles, OYE might suggest a match where the hard conditions are met, but the soft conditions aren’t perfectly aligned. The aim here is to ensure an exchange can still happen even if a perfect match is hard to find.
Occasionally, we may propose a match where the hard conditions don’t align perfectly, but the soft conditions are so compatible that we believe it could lead to a great exchange. For example, if two students share the same interests and expectations, but one family requested a private room and the other can only offer a shared room. We’ll communicate this clearly when proposing the match, and you’ll always have the option to decline.
3. Proposing and accepting the match
When a match is found, both families will receive an email with:
Once both families accept the match and complete the payment, Organise Your Exchange will share the full profiles and provide the Materials to help you organise the exchange.
The diagram below shows the full process if everything goes well.
A profile is considered compatible when all the hard conditions of both families align. Once this happens, OYE will consider proposing the match to both organisers.
That said, we aim to go beyond just hard conditions. We look for matches where the soft conditions—like shared interests and preferences—also align, as we believe this creates the best exchange experience for everyone involved.
During the Early Access phase, the service is free of charge so no payment is necessary.
Once the service is officially launched, payment will be due as soon as the organiser accepts the match proposed by Organise Your Exchange.
If you decide to stop the planning process with a matched family, please contact Organise Your Exchange to let us know the reason. We’ll work to understand both sides and, when appropriate, try to find you a new match.
However, Organise Your Exchange reserves the right to stop considering a profile for future matches. This could happen if a family repeatedly withdraws from matches or if we determine that continuing wouldn’t be fair to other families.
In cases where a user violates our terms and conditions, they may be immediately removed from future matches, without any possibility of a refund. This includes:
There are different parts of the service to consider:
At the moment, the website and materials are only available in English. You can use the ‘Translate website’ functionality of your browser to view it in your own language, though this might not be 100% reliable.
I aim to make the Materials available at least in Dutch, French, German and Spanish, and can communicate in those languages via chat, email, or video call.
For other languages, feel free to send your message in your language and I will use a translator. You can also translate the message to English before sending.
An event where a student visits another family, usually in a different country, for a certain amount of time. The goal is to exchange their respective customs and culture and learn from each other.
On the Organise Your Exchange website, ‘Exchange’ might refer to any type of exchange or an OYE exchange.
A cultural exchange is an exchange where the focus is on learning about and experiencing the culture of the country the exchange student is visiting
An exchange as organised through the Organise Your Exchange platform, which has the following characteristics
The word parents is used to refer to the adult(s) with whom the exchange student lives and who will organise the exchange together with the exchange student.
The terms parent or parents are used for readability and can refer to the biological parent(s), adoptive parent(s), legal guardian(s) or step parent(s) of the student.
To use the Organise Your Exchange platform and create a profile, one of the parents has to accept the terms and conditions and privacy policy.
For many countries, a minor travelling alone must have documents which are signed by his/her legal guardian(s). For more information, see the country profiles
The high-school student that is organising the exchange with his/her parents. An exchange student will visit the host family and exchange buddy on his/her outbound exchange. From the perspective of the host family, the exchange student is the exchange buddy.
The family, made up of the exchange student and his/her parent(s) or legal guardian(s), that is organising the exchange. From the perspective of the family they are matched with, they are the host family.
The high-school student of the family that is matched to the exchange family through Organise Your Exchange. He/she will visit the exchange family on the inbound exchange.
The family, made up of the exchange buddy and his/her parent(s) or legal guardian(s), which is matched to the exchange family through Organise Your Exchange.
The exchange where the exchange buddy visits the exchange family.
The exchange where the exchange student visits the host family.
A profile is what represents the exchange family on the Organise Your Exchange platform after you sign up.
Your profile is created by filling out the signup form for the Early Access or a specific exchange season. Before a profile is considered for matching, Organise Your Exchange will check it for completeness and suitability. You might be asked to provide additional information to complete your profile before it is accepted.
OYE reserves the right to refuse to consider any profile for matching.
Your profile contains all the information that Organise Your Exchange needs to match you with a host family. When you are matched, all information in your profile, except the fields where it says otherwise, will be shared with your host family.
The process whereby two families that have compatible profiles on Organise Your Exchange are put in contact with one another for the purpose of organising an exchange together.
Matching can refer to the actions taken by Organise Your Exchange, or the sharing of the contact information, or both together.
The school period refers to the official school period of the country or region of the exchange student’s school. During this period, high-school students are obliged to attend school according to the education laws.
The vacation period refers to the official vacation periods of the country or region of the exchange student’s school. During this period, high-school students are not supposed to attend school.
A school-time exchange is partially or entirely organised during the school period of the exchange student or exchange buddy.
If it is during the school period of the exchange student, permission might be needed to be absent from school during that period.
If it is during the school period of the exchange buddy, the exchange student should accompany their exchange buddy to school and permission from the exchange buddy’s school will be needed.
A school-break exchange takes place during the vacation period of the exchange student and exchange buddy.
As the students do not go to school during this period, no additional permission is needed.
Throughout this website, he/she, his/her and him/her might be used to describe a student, parent, or other person. These pronouns are used for readability and are explicitly not meant to exclude anyone who does not identify with them.
In keeping with the mission and values of OYE, we want anyone, regardless of their background, social situation, gender identity or sexuality, to be able to organise an exchange through the platform.
Definitions
LGBTQ stands for “lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer”, and is a widely used term to refer to the community of people that are non-heterosexual and non-cisgender. The plus sign is added to include people that are part of the community, but for whom LGBTQ does not accurately capture their identity. You can find more information here.
Trans / Other is one of the options that people who sign up to Organise Your Exchange can select for their gender.
Trans is short for transgender and generally refers to a person whose gender identity does not match the biological sex they were assigned at birth. You can find more information here
Other covers any gender identity that is not represented by man, woman, or trans.
How gender and identification as LGBTQ+ is managed in your profile and taken into account with matching
You can select the option Trans / Other in the Gender question (3.4). You can further specify this in the student or family profile. This information is used in the matching process. For example:
You can indicate that at least one of the parents or the student identify as LGBTQ+ (7.3). This will be taken into account in the matching process.
You can indicate that you prefer not to be matched with a family where at least one of the parents or the student identify as LGBTQ+. This will be taken into account during the matching process.
Why OYE chose this setup
The mission of Organise Your Exchange is to enable any student, regardless of their background and situation, to organise a safe and rewarding cultural exchange during high school.
In choosing the current setup, we try to balance the following considerations:
We use Google products because they are free, widely accessible, and excellent for collaboration—especially when coordinating an exchange with another family.
To get the most out of these tools, you’ll need a free Google account. You can learn how to create one here.
Alternatively, you can download the Google Sheets and Docs to your computer and use your own software to access them, but this may limit the collaborative features.
For more detailed guidance on using these tools, check out the help articles for Google Sheets and Google Docs
If your country isn’t listed, it means we haven’t yet confirmed the rules regarding school absences for cultural exchanges and travelling as an unaccompanied minor in your country.
Our long-term goal is to make OYE available to everyone, regardless of location. If you’d like to help us add your country to the list of featured countries, we’d love your support! Feel free to reach out via our contact form.
In the meantime, you can still create a profile. However, since your country isn’t available in the list of selectable countries (question 5.2), you’ll only be matched with families that are open to organising an exchange with non-listed countries (question 5.3).
Part of planning your exchange will include creating a plan to stay on track with your schoolwork while you’re away. If you go during school time, you’ll likely need to bring your own homework to complete during your exchange buddy’s classes, as you may not be able to participate directly in their lessons.
It depends on whether you plan to organise the exchange during school time or during a school holiday.
If your grades need improvement, you could use the exchange as motivation to boost your academic situation!
An OYE exchange differs significantly from traditional exchange programs. To better understand these differences, click here to learn more.
Here are the key factors to help determine if an OYE exchange is a good fit for your family:
If you can answer “yes” to these questions, organising an exchange with OYE is an excellent choice for your family.
This depends on several factors, such as timing, duration, and your child’s current academic situation.
An essential part of preparing for an OYE exchange is assessing your child’s school commitments and creating a plan to ensure they stay on track academically. This may include communicating with teachers, adjusting schedules, or setting up support systems for study during the exchange period.
Interestingly, the opportunity to participate in an exchange can also motivate students to improve their academic performance before and after the program.
For any exchange involving minors, safety is the most important consideration.
Because of the way OYE is set up, the parents take responsibility for ensuring the safety of the exchange students.
You can find detailed safety guidelines and tips on our dedicated safety page and in the exchange playbook you will receive when you are matched.
No, OYE requires a parent to act as the primary organiser and officially sign up to the platform. This ensures a responsible adult oversees the exchange planning and execution.
However, your child is encouraged to actively participate or even take the lead in the planning process. This collaboration can make the experience even more rewarding and educational.
The costs of an OYE exchange will depend on the kind of exchange you organise, there are variables such as:
Here are some examples based on the story of Adélie and Katrin’s exchange on the How OYE works page, and an example of a 2-week school-time exchange between France and the Netherlands which is focussed on keeping the costs low.
Assumptions:
Adélie & family
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Travel (2x bus) | 66 |
| Pickup of Katrin at airport (Adélie’s family has monthly public transport passes) | 20 |
| Drop off at the bus station (as above) | 5 |
| Day trip train tickets for both (4 trips) | 188 |
| Other public transport for both | 40 |
| Snacks & food inbound exchange (15 EUR per day trip (4) & trip to Paris (4) ) | 120 |
| Transport & cost for weekend activities with Adélie’s family (2x) | 80 |
| They take no insurance | 0 |
| Cost of Organise Your Exchange | 75 |
| Total | 594 |
Katrin & family
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Travel (Flight and bus) | 134 |
| Pickup & drop off of Adélie (by car) | 30 |
| Snacks & food outbound exchange (€15 per day trip (4x) & trip to Paris (4x)) | 120 |
| Additional cost for camping trip (€15 per day) & eating out for Adélie | 200 |
| Day trips around Magdeburg (3x for both) | 90 |
| They take no insurance | 0 |
| Cost of Organise Your Exchange | 75 |
| Total | 649 |
Assumptions:
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Travel (2x bus) | 60 |
| Pickup and drop off at the station | 30 |
| Weekend activities with the family (3x) | 90 |
| Travel insurance (health insurance incl.) | 30 |
| Sport activities (2x) | 15 |
| Cultural activities (3x) | 25 |
| Cost of Organise Your Exchange | 75 |
| Total | 325 |
Organise Your Exchange is a platform that allows high school students and their families to organise their own cultural exchange
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2024 Organise Your Exchange
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