My daughter, a junior in high school, is thinkng about doing a rotary club foreign exchange program during her senior year. She currently has a 4.0 GPA and is concerned about how admissions would look on this. It would require her taking one elective on-line to fulfill her high school requirements. Her intended major is International Development, so I think the international component might actually help her.
The exchange year will not affect her application negatively. It may help a bit. It will be more challenging to get everything done long distance, so she should take that on-line class in the summer if she can, and get her letters of recommendation lined up in the spring, and make drafts of her essays as soon as the applications go live in August.
Why don't you think about doing Rotary as a gap year. Finish your studies in high school and then head overseas. Apply to college before you leave like any other senior.
The majority of the colleges my D interviewed with were pleased to see quality students take the Rotary gap year. She received a full merit based scholarship and deferred it to the fall of 2013.
