Interested in hosting a high school foreign exchange student??

[treedonkey]

My parents hosted an exchange student for one year when I was a teenager. I remember it being a good, enriching experience overall. It seemed to work out fine for everyone, and there were no major problems that I know if. That was well over 20 years ago, and we still think of her regularly, although we never have been able to establish regular contact, although I have found some of her peers via facebook.

That said, it's not for everyone, and certainly should be entered into with great caution.

[HollyENichols]

I am looking for loving host families to help me with 2 projects. One is a short term program and we have an urgent need for families to agree to house students in their home for 3 weeks, June 27th - July 17th. (Avail. for the majority of the time, but if you are out of town for part of it, we can make other arrangements for the student)

Families can be single or married people with young children, no children, teens or grandchildren. Students have spending money and are covered 100% by medical insurance. The host family is only asked to offer a bed (the student can share a bedroom with a host sibling) and meals. I need to secure all host families by tomorrow night and still need 5 families to volunteer!

The students are from Belarus and are accomplished students who have earned a scholarship to participate in this program. The students do community service, leadership projects and see some of Colorado during the week days and get to know their host family in the evenings and on the weekends.
I am writing to ask if you would be willing to help with this project:

1.) Would you consider hosting a student for 3 weeks?
2.) Could you recommend any families who would make a quality host family if they chose to become a part of this program?
3.) Would you be willing to pass this email on to this along to people in your email address book or your social networking friends to help spread the word?

We also need 10-month families for the 2010-2011 school year, where 1,200 students from all across Eastern Europe are selected out of 52,000 as the promising leaders of their nation and given a scholarship to come to America. The kids are 15-18 years old and they attend a local high school, while living with a host family.

I have personally hosted 8 school year students in my own home and numerous short term students. I would be happy to answer any questions, day or evening.

You can reply to the forum or you can call me anytime! I'm working around the clock to search for the right volunteers!! My cell # is: 806-577-9533. It's an out of state cell, but I now live here in Colorado Springs.

[phetaroi]

I must say I find this whole thread is scary.

When I was a kid we had an exchange college student from Kenya stay with us. It was a great experience. There was also an exchange student from Thailand at my high school one year. Apparently that was another great experience.

More recently, before I retired as a school principal, I became aware of a high school exchange student who was living with a family that was simply bizarre. The American father frequently threatened the lives of school officials at all of his children's schools, brandished weapons at children in his neighborhood, was often monitored by the police. Yet, he became an "exchange parent". Appalling!

[Quest International]

Hosting a foreign exchange student could be rewarding but also challenging. For example, many of our pre-screened families we deal with love kids and feel lot more happier by hosting foreign kids. This is a great experience for many families especially for the ones who have single children and/or simply love to be surrounded by children. A new "brother" or "sister" is really cool to have especially that he or she comes from another country.
Hosting a foreign student could also be challenging when there is a language barrier between the family and the kid. Students can sometimes be hard to understand. For example some host families complain that the kid doesn't want to participate into activities and encloses themselves. It could be frustrating for the family.
It's not always the fault of the student but sometimes issues could come from families, that is why at Quest we do our best selecting appropriate families by checking their backgrounds and understand what are their main motives behind hosting. We do the same for students by checking their English level, what they enjoy doing and understand their expectations. We finally try to match them accordingly.

Visit us to have more details about hosting:
Host an Exchange Student | Become a Host Family | Apply Now