We’re always urging our exchange students to “do” some kind of extracurricular activity — something outside their regular school classes. It almost doesn’t matter what the activity is; it can be sports, band, choir, a dance class, martial arts, or some sort of volunteer activity in the community. It can be something that already interests […]
We coordinators are always promoting the exchange experience, of course . . . but shouldn’t we sometimes hear from our students and families? So for today, we thought we would share a few examples of what students themselves say about their exchange in another country. “Born in Austria, But I Lost My Heart in Ireland […]
Just a fun video I thought I would share this afternoon as many of us get ready to watch or listen to election news tonight in the U.S. We share a lot about democracy and the election process with our students…this video has nothing to do with that, not directly. It just shows a young […]
We’ve written before about challenges our exchange students face in the beginning of the year; see, for example, this blog post. It’s that time of year again. Exchange students have been in their communities and schools long enough for life to feel almost ‘normal’ — but they still worry about making friends, about how they […]
I’ve been hosting exchange students for over 20 years, and I’ve shared with many of them my passion for astronomy. My wife and I even tried to find the perfect student with whom to share the 2017 eclipse by choosing a student who specifically said she was interested in astronomy, though we were defeated in […]
I thought our readers might like to take a look at the attached short article. It has some good ideas to help new exchange students (who often think Americans are Just Plain Weird because of all the “small talk” we do). Students can ask host families some of these questions, and host families can help […]
I read this statement recently in a blog post: On August 12, 2016, I arrived in California. I still remember when I got off the plane, seeing unfamiliar faces holding a sign that has my name on it. I was nervous and terrified that they wouldn’t like me; I thought it would feel awkward to live with a family that […]
We have worked with high school exchange students for 10 years now — 14 if you count the several years we were “just” host parents and not coordinators! Working with teens going through cultural shock and host families going through the excitement of learning about another culture can be exhilarating. It can be frustrating. It […]