Why Host an Exchange Student (or is Technology Enough?)
This time of year, high school exchange student programs in the U.S. are seeking host families for the coming academic year. You may have seen posts on Facebook, read flyers in your local coffee shop, or visited an exchange organization’s booth at a local community event. Your thoughts might be “what a cool idea!,” or perhaps […]
Injuries and Illness While on an Exchange: What’s the Right Thing to Do?
Last year, one of the exchange students in our group had to return home to Norway two months before the end of the exchange year due to illness. Potential host parents ask us questions about this kind of thing: what happens if students get sick while they are here? Do I as a host parent […]
Reading Resource Update: Good Blog Article
Came across a blog post today I thought my readers might like to see: 8 Things I’ve learned as an Exchange Student Host Parent I especially like #1; it’s exactly why we decided to host high school students when our boys were 9 and 11. But the other items on her list all hit home […]
Why Would I Want to Host *That* Student . . . He’s So . . . Different!
Why people choose or don’t choose certain students, once they have made the decision to host an exchange student, is an intensely personal decision. People are bringing a foreign teen into their family for a semester or academic year, which is hard enough. We coordinators work hard to make good “matches,” trying to figure out […]
Thoughts for the New Year on Study Abroad
As the year winds down and we’re all thinking about what we’ve accomplished this year and where we would like to be in our lives for the coming year, I thought I would share with my readers this interesting blog post I came across this morning: Studying Abroad: The Who, the Why, and the Why Not. […]
“Exchange is not a Year in a Life, but a Life in a Year” — The Year Ends, and the Life Begins
There is a saying in the international exchange community, “exchange is not a year in one’s life, but a life in a year.” Between late May through the end of June, the students who have been on their exchange for a semester or for a full academic year are beginning to return to their home […]
Practical Tips for High School Exchange Students
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 […]
Hosting a Foreign Exchange Student – when it works, it works!
11-02-2012 — I thought this interview on Wisconsin’s TV show, The Morning Blend, was worth passing along. This is what cultural exchange is all about — a good “match” between host family and exchange student, a student interested in doing things differently while here in the U.S., and a host family interested in learning about […]