At this time of year, my students begin to feel …. strange. They have been in the U.S. for almost 9 months, and have 2 months to go before they go back to …. well, what? That is the question; they don’t really know what will be waiting for them when they return. They miss […]
I get quite a few questions at this time of year about what are the expectations for a family looking to host a high school exchange student. So I thought it might be the right time to go over some of those questions. How long is the typical exchange experience for students? High school students […]
“International exchanges are not a great tide to sweep away all differences, but they will slowly wear away at the obstacles to peace as surely as water wears away a hard stone.” – Former President George H.W. Bush This time of year, the 100 or so high school exchange student programs in the U.S. are […]
1. Make a copy of your student’s passport and insurance information. For many of us, our first thought when thinking about “teens” and “important documents” is that those words do not belong in the same sentence. As host parents, we used to immediately put our exchange students’ passports into the house safe. Revised federal regulations […]
I sometimes tweet a “tip of the day” for exchange students or host families. Here are my tips from January for students, with some thoughts on each. I’ll post more tips from time to time, both for students and for families. Have a meaningful conversation today with someone in your host family. Start a conversation […]
My 18-year-old son, Marcus, is spending a community service exchange semester in Ghana. So I am trying to learn about the place he will be living for five months, beyond the basics such as it’s about the size of the state of Oregon (although with a population of some 25 million). The other day I […]
The idea of cultural exchange sounds simple enough, but in fact several pieces of the cultural exchange puzzle need to fit together for a successful exchange experience. There are the students, of course, whether high school or college, who make the choice to go abroad for adventure, education, and personal growth. There are the families […]
I’ve been thinking about this recently, since we’ve been looking for host families for students arriving in January and are beginning to look for families for the 2013-2014 academic year. I get the question a lot when I talk to people about hosting a student. “My kids are too young,” or “I need to wait […]