(Aug 26, 2025)
Nancy Langdon is a President-Elect of the Redondo Beach Rotary Club. Her activities have included project manager, ISO consultant, and STEM youth advocate. She is the author of 2 books on creative fashion design and children's apparel.
Her companion this evening is 16-year-old Alberto Roma Ripol from Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, on a Youth Exchange attending Palos Verdes High School. His plans include improving his English and playing American football. His family has also participated in the Rotary Youth Exchange.
Rotary Youth Exchange began in 1929, sending thousands of young people from dozens of countries to spend a year as high school students in other countries as part of Rotary's mission of promoting Peace and Understanding. According to the 2024 Global Peace Index, 92 countries are currently engaged in conflict beyond their borders.
Exchange students must be between age 15 and 18, above average academically, with no disciplinary records, and open-minded, flexible and responsible. Exchange students are urged to be active, curious about the new culture, understand why they are doing this, be grateful, and build bridges. The program is audited to ensure safety of the students and meeting the Youth Exchange mission. The world’s opinion of the US is complex, a mixture of admiration and criticism; experiencing the culture of another country is important for improving understanding between countries.
Host families are very important, to provide a fulfilling American experience to their student guests. Any kind of family can be a host family, with or without children. There is an urgent need for host families in the Palos Verdes area; please contact Nancy Langdon through the Redondo Beach Rotary Club (https://rotary5280.org/clubInfo/redondo-beach) if you have any leads.