Soon after your arrival, usually in September, all the inbound students will meet up to prepare for their year in Czech Republic. Our volunteers will teach you about life in the Czech Republic, and will welcome you to your host country by organizing trips and fun activities for you. The seminar will also give you tools to have a successful exchange year, talk about any first experiences, and introduce you to your fellow exchange students! 

In January or February, we will meet again to talk about your exchange year so far, about your personal achievements, about the problems you might have experienced and about your plans for the coming months. This is a great chance to reflect on how things are going and to set goals for the remaining months of your exchange. You and your fellow exchange students can also help each other to make the most of the rest of your time in the Czech Republic! 

At the end of your experience, we organize a final seminar for you. Saying good-bye and going home can be difficult and this seminar is meant to help you be successful in this. This orientation is combined with the preparation orientation for our Czech students who will go on an exchange year, so you will have the possibility to meet them and talk with them about your year in fluent Czech. You might even meet a student who is preparing to spend a year in your home country! 

Throughout the year, we organize meetings in Prague or Ostrava (or surrounding regions) for all students, host families, contact persons, and other volunteers. Activities vary - the group may go bowling, visit a glass factory, or one of the Czech Republic’s marvelous castles - each and every meeting is unique! These informal meetings are perfect bonding opportunities and a wonderful place to discuss further plans! 

In order to help you in to adapt to your new Czech life, YFU CZ organizes Colored Glasses workshops in schools across the country. Colored Glasses workshops center on the topics of cultural understanding, discrimination and equality on an interactive basis. Their aim is to help you and your classmates understand each other better.

At the very end of your YFU exchange year, you will have the opportunity to attend the YES – Youth Empowerment Seminar - near Berlin, Germany. Since 2017, all YFU students on exchange in Europe - regardless from which continent they come from - are allowed and encouraged to go to the YES! Our Czech volunteers accompany the students to this 5-day event, the biggest in the YFU world. Around 500 students and 200 volunteers gather and prepare to return home in this fantastic YFU atmosphere.