Student Information

This Exchange Program began in November, 1977 when 30 students from New York City high schools traveled to Israel for a month long stay arranged by the America-Israel Friendship League. The Council of the Great City Schools, which represents over 50 of the nation's  largest urban school districts, joined with the Friendship League to expand the program nation wide. The Tucson Unified School District, which is now a member of the Council of the Great City Schools, has been participating in the exchange program for twelve years. Since 1998, Sunnyside, Amphitheater, Marana, Catalina Foothills and Vail Unified School Districts also began to participate in the Exchange Program.

The program is designed to provide high school students with an opportunity to participate in an intercultural exchange with students from Israel. This is accomplished by hosting Israeli students for approximately one week in the fall and by sending a group of Tucson students along with approximately 120 high school students from around the country to Israel for a two week visit, following seminars in New York and Washington, D.C.   If travel to Israel is not possible due to the situation in the Middle East, then the U.S. students will travel to New York City and Washington, D.C. to participate in an alternate program with the Israeli students.  While the Israeli students are in Tucson, they will stay with host families and attend high schools in the Tucson area with high school-age students in the participating school districts.

Tucson students selected to go to Israel and/or New York City and Washington D.C. will serve as official Ambassadors from the United States and will be expected to speak about the American way of life nationally, as well as how it works in Tucson and Arizona.  Ambassadors will have the opportunity to visit numerous historic sites as well as popular modern cities, museums, temples and other attractions.  As the country of Israel holds a diverse and varied populous, the Tucson representatives selected will also reflect the ethnic diversity of the city.

Read what the 2008 Youth Ambassadors have to say about the program...

YASE was described in the 2010 Pueblo Magnet High School yearbook