Tips for New Host Families: First, Contact Your Student
It amazes us every year to see the lengths that families go to welcome their students: taking them on excursions around the community, showing them the local high school, and just spending time with them. We’re always in awe with how much people are willing to do! Bringing a student into the host family home, however, […]
The Hard Part: Getting Involved and Making Friends
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 […]
Communicating is Even More Important Than You Think
One of the hardest things an exchange student or a host family may face is sharing information that might result in the student moving to a new family. We are talking about real life things. Things like a host parent or sibling being very ill. A host parent losing his or her job. Students discovering […]
We Had a Bad Hosting Experience . . . Why Should We Host Again?
From an email we received during the last school year: We are currently hosting an exchange student. We are not enjoying it. The student is not as she described herself in her application. Our student is lazy, grumpy, and moody. Our home has felt awkward for months and we are anxious for her to leave. […]
Note From an Exchange Student: I’m Homesick…How Long Will it Take Me to Settle In?
I’ve been in the U.S. for more than two months now and I don’t have any friends here. It makes me sad. I talk to my friends back home a lot since I don’t have anyone to talk to here in my host country. What else can I do? It’s around this time of year […]
When the Teenage Brain Attacks
Impacts on a Student’s Exchange Year An exchange student in the Portland metro area was sent home this past weekend, two months early. What did he do? The student’s host sister found him smoking a marijuana joint in the host family home. The host parents found the joint where he had left it sitting on the […]
So What Do We Talk About With Your Exchange Students At the Beginning of the Year?
Practical Tips for Host Families (and Students, Too!) The U.S. government requires that J-1 visa high school exchange students have both pre-departure and post-arrival orientations. These meetings cover U.S laws, program rules and regulations, expectations for behavior, how to ensure students’ health and safety, and practical tips for success. We’ve been having our post-arrival welcome […]
Mobile Phones and the Exchange Student: What’s the Answer?
The following blog post is an update from my blog post on this subject from last year. We get questions all the time on this subject, and I decided to do a quick update to reflect changes we have seen in technology and in student habits. The information below may not be news for everyone, […]