About the YFU Program

All international students arrive in Vienna, the capital of Austria, in the middle or at the end of August.

Orientations and Camps
All incoming students spend the first two days in Vienna at our arrival orientation where you will get to know all the other students from different countries who will also spend their exchange year in Austria. After the arrival orientation your host family will come to pick you up or you will take a train to travel to your new home.
In October, about two months after your arrival, the post-arrival-orientation takes place. You will spend three days together with the other students and YFU volunteers to reflect about your first impressions and experiences in Austria.

The mid-year meeting will be in January or February and the chances are good that you will be spending the weekend in the snow!

After having become part of a new family, having made new friends and having found a second place that you call "home", it's not so easy to say good-bye. At the end of your exchange year all the students meet for another three days at the re-entry seminar, where we help you to prepare yourself for saying goodbye and going back home. During this last seminar you will also get a chance to meet Austrian students who are just getting prepared for their year abroad - maybe one of them is even heading to your home country!

Every student and his/her hostfamily also have a YFU counselor. Most of the counselors have been exchange students or host-families themselves, so they know what it is like to spend a year away from home. Your counselor is there to help you to integrate into your new host family and school. An exchange year is not always easy, but the volunteers, your counselor and also the people at the YFU office are always there to help you!