Can you Host an International High School Exchange Student? YES!!! you CAN!!!!

International High School students from countries all around the world are looking for safe and welcoming homes to come and stay in for 5 or 10 months while they become part of the family, are emersed in the American culture and English language and attend American high school and learn about out government, civics, personal interactions, academics and extra curricular activites. Many of these students are top performers and this experience is necessary to increase their chances of getting into the "University" {college} in their country. Many countries have such a competitive entrance to be able to attend any quality higher education that the students and their families work to achieve any advantage they can to improve their chances of being selected by a good school so that they are able to obtain a good job. What a refreshing diligence and commitment to hardwork and academic and intelligence achievement, from children.

What is required to be a host?
1. Home (house, apartment, trailer with 2 or more people) that is safe and appropriate for a student. They do not require their own room usually, as long as they will be sharing a room with a sibling 8 or old ( to protect their belongs, sleep and study time). Most students enjoy sharing a room to learn and bond with members better and to have total emersion into the customs and language.

2. Access to transportation. They can use public transportation or you can drive them places. They do have to get to and from school and occasional trips to stores or sites to be able to experience the area. CIEE coordinators are available to help and they schedule "group" events and trips to help provide the students activities.

3. Food. Host families are asked to provide some meals for the student so they experience our cuisine, however they do have spending money and can purchase their lunches and dinners out but making sure they have access to appropriate food is necessary.

4. Allowing them to participate with family activities and trips, they enjoy this and it helps bond with them and helps them experience more language and personal interaction responses in natural settings.

5. Filling out the application and passing the background check. see the website for more information. {If something comes back from distant passed it may not prevent your being able to host, it will be discussed and determined on a per case basis}

What do you get for all this???

1. A detailed profile report with picture of your student, address, email, and phone number so you can make contact and start building a repoure with them. {Not all organizations give this, it is just one of the differences with CIEE}. Information about the parents, the health of the student, any allergies, concerns or dislikes (pets, small children, smoking), academic scores, transcript of their schooling, a letter from the student to their host, a note from the parents, a profile of the country the student is from, information about their town or city and a supportive and resourceful coordinator that is available throughout the process and during the exchange period. A network of mangement within the CIEE organization, including a coordinator in the home country.

2. The experience of seeing your home and property in a different way. Looking at the routine things you do as something much more important or seeing "strange things you do and don't know why" you do them until you try to explain them.

2. Someone who pitches in without demanding allowance or reward. A new sense of your prescence in your home and maybe some much lacking appreciation of the little things that just seem like expected or the normal way moms do things.

3. $50.00/ month of hosting tax credit. see website or your coordinator for more information.

4. Joy of seeing someone learn and do new things for the first time and of helping someone achieve their goals.

5. Your family will learn about another country, its customs, foods, and language. It is great for children to experience first hand how similar people are and to learn by tasting the foods or seeing the pictures of foreign places.

6. Many, many thanks and possible gifts from the student and the parents. A new longterm friendship with someone in a foreign country.

7. A sense of influence on someones life, and a sense of pride when you hear how they are succeeding once they go back to their country. Knowledge that you helped enhance someones learning and development, while just living and doing your normal activities and sharing your home and life with them.

My Story of Host to Coordinator

I was so impressed with the procedures and information provided by CIEE to their host families that I inquired about becoming more involved in helping with the exchange program and my coordinator invited me to join the team as a coordinator. Our exchange student, "Mek", has been an instant joy and such a blessing to our household from the moment he called 2 and 1/2 hours before his arrival time here in North Carolina from Chicago, just to let me know he was on time and looking forward to meeting us. He was so excited that we were coming to meet him at the airport and pick him up to bring him to our home. He was not "expecting" us to come since he had been told we lived a distance from the airport and that the coordinator sometimes picks up the students at the airport and takes them to their host homes.

He was instantly engaged with our family and even played soccer with our son while waiting for dinner his first night, after flying most of day and having jet lag. Every opportunity to experience something new is eagerly embraced and he fearlessly and diligently seeks new opportunities and information at every opportune moment. He is from Thailand, therefore football there, is our soccer, which he had played there many years but he is an avid American football fan and wanted to tryout for the American football team at his school.

We made some calls and he was able to "walk on" and he made it onto the team as a Receiver. Although he only "played" approximately 15 minutes 2 or 3 plays at the very end of 2 different games, but he was so proud and excited to be part of the team. He was a great encourager and very popular on his team. He worked hard to learn and work out like all the other players, while standing on the sidelines for the entire game he was pumped and positive, diligently watching and cheer for his team mates.

It has been 4 months and we are so attached to him we have started bargining with his awesome parents in Thailand to keep him. ha ha.. We have been so impressed with his parents also, they have been warm and friendly and extremely thankful for our willingness to have their son stay with us and learn about America. They sent us awesome gifts and have called us several times, we even skyped once which was truly amazing. We will never be the same, we have been so blessed by this opportunity and are as excited and diligent about our education of Thailand, its customs, culture and language. This has been a great bonding time and a source of alot of laughter in our home, as my husband, who has a very slow southern drawl attempted to pronounce Thai words. Ah... it really is the little things and the simple things of life that make the most laughter.

We embrace this experience as the ultimate stewardship exercise and a truely faith expression. Our family is so blessed with adequate housing, and although not ideal always food supply we have never not had food to choose from, as long as we were willing to cook it. We have income enough to cover expenses and had the room to open our home to help someone. It does not get much better than that, God always equips us to be able to provide anything we are asked to give, we just have to be willing and bold enough to take that step or receive the email or phone call.

Can you open your home and hearts to one of these awesome high school students (15-18 years old) needing a home and a host to help them receive the experience and education they need to be fully equipped for what they are called to do?

Check out the website for more information, and to sign up as host family. www.CIEE.org/highschool


Email me and let me know you signed up, If you are in Franklin County, I will be your coordinator, if you are other counties in North Carolina (Triangle Area) I can team up with your coordinator to help get you ready for your awesome experience and you can talk with Mek and get some pointers of how to welcome your student. If you are outside of the triangle area of North Carolina or in another state I am still interested in teaming up with you and helping in anyway I can.

Welcome to the Proud and Bold Sharing community or CIEE Host Families, and just like a physical family, we help and support each other. Feel free to email or call me, Dot Wiggins, cell phone (919) 219-2650.