Conference turris::scandia

397.0. "Hosting an exchange student: what's involved" by NEILS::SAVAGE () Thu Jun 14 1990 16:35

    From: [email protected] (Roger Haaheim)
    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    Subject: Are you a potential Host Parent?
    Date: 13 Jun 90 16:35:57 GMT
    Organization: HP Design Tech Center - Santa Clara, CA
 
    For those of you interested in finding out more about becoming host
    parents to foreign exchange students (you need not have a student of
    your own to "exchange") the best way would be to call one of the
    international student organizations and ask them to send you an
    information pack.
 
    There are many int'l orgs and most have 800 phone numbers.  We have
    hosted 5 students through 2 agencies; American Intercultural Student
    Exchange (AISE) and Youth for Understanding (YFU).  We enjoyed YFU so
    much my wife became a volunteer host family/student representative.
    (She coordinates matching host families and students, and during the
    year, counsels students and families if problems arise, and coordinates
    special activities for students/families.)
 
    The YFU number (this is a plug) is 1-800-USA-0200, and is good for all
    regions of the country; it will get you to the regional office nearest
    you.  (You should be able to call the 1-800-555-1212 information
    operator to get the 800 numbers of any other organizations if you
    wish.)
 
    If you call YFU (all without obligation of course) the general process
    is as follows:
 
    You get the info pack containing most-asked questions and their
    answers, what to expect, what is required of host parents, rules the
    students must abide by, etc.
 
    If you're interested, you fill out an information form with your usual
    stats (name, address, phone) plus your general interests (skiing,
    needlepoint, archeology, or whatever) to be used in matching you up
    with a selection of students.
 
    YFU will then review the info, and set up a personal interview to
    discuss all the details about what's involved in hosting.  The focus of
    the interview is to find out as much about the potential host family as
    possible (the kinds of things you would want to know about a potential
    family for one of your own kids an another country for the school year)
    and to impart as much info about the hosting experience as possible.
 
    If, at that point, you are still interested, and YFU considers you to
    be a good candidate as a host family, you will be shown some brief
    profiles (resume') of the kids who will be coming for the next school
    year.  You and and YFU try to find the best match of interest,
    activities, religion, temperament, etc.  Occasionally single parents
    with teens are accepted as host parents if the match is right.
 
    The primary goal of YFU and most agency's is the student's welfare
    during their stay in our country.  During the year the exchange agency
    representatives keep in contact with the host families and the students
    to make sure that a good match has been made and that if any problems
    arise, they are solved quickly and satisfactorily for the student and
    the family.
 
    Once you have chosen a student, the student is notified of the
    placement and direct communication between the host parents and the
    student takes place, usually by mail, but we have had students so
    excited that they called us to introduce themselves.
 
    Hosting is one of the most deeply satisfying activities I have been
    involved in, and I obviously highly recommend that interested people
    try it, or at least get more information about it.  Anyone interested
    in  more hosting-experience details, situations, or anecdotes can
    E-mail  questions to me.

    From: [email protected] (Peter Herman x5495)
    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    Subject: Re: Are you a potential Host Parent?
    Date: 14 Jun 90 15:00:17 GMT
    Organization: NMSU Computer Science
 
 
    Our exchange experience was with ASSE (American Scandinavian Student
    Exchange 800-333-3802). (BTW, ASSE is not restricted to students from
    Scandinavian countries. One of the nice things about the good  programs
    like ASSE is that they take care of a lot of things which could  be
    problems for you.  For example, they carry the health insurance that
    the students need in case of accidents or illness.  They also have a
    reasonable set of guidelines about student behavior which both the
    students and host family sign "contract" style. They have a network  of
    area and local support people to help you out. The reps also set up
    social programs to get the students together periodically.  Our rep met
    with the families together, the students alone and the parents alone
    periodically through out the year.  We never needed any problems solved
    by the organization, but it sure was nice to know that they were there.
 
    I too can recommend the host parent experience highly. I would advise
    any potential host parents to talk with the person who will be their
    local rep.  This person is your back up and you want to feel good about
    them. We actually were recruited by our local rep who found out about
    our Sweden connection  through the university.
 
    I would be glad to talk to or e-mail correspond with anyone interested
    in more info about what hosting is like, particularly for couples with
    no children of their own.
 
    *********************************************************************
    *  |\  |.\ /| |\                        Peter Herman                *
    *  |/  | /  | |/   [email protected]      Department of Biology       *
    *  |\  |.\  | |\   01-505-646-4532(day) New Mexico State University *
    *  | \ | /  | | \  01-505-524-0712(eve)                             *
    *                                                                   *
    *  All opinions and spelling mistakes( och jag stavar lika d�lig p� *
    *                     svensk) are completely my own                 *
    *                      -Who else would want them?-                  *
    *********************************************************************

    From: [email protected] (Eivind Kristiansen)
    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    Subject: Norwegian Students in USA/Canada
    Date: 3 Mar 93 16:09:07 GMT
    Sender: [email protected]
    Organization: New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, N.J.
 
 
    There are about 2500/3000 Norwegian students in the US and Canada. The
    pastor for Norwegian students is an ordained pastor of the Church of
    Norway and works for the Norwegian Seamens Mission/Norwegian Church
    Abroad connected to the Norwegian Seamens Church in New York City. The 
    ministry consists of visiting students on the place where they study
    and arranging discussion evenings and doing consulting and contact
    work. The pastor works in cooperation with ANSA, Association of
    Norwegian Students Abroad, and the foreign ministry of Norway. If you
    would like to get in touch with this ministry, please do not hesitate
    to contact> Studentpresten, co The Norwegian Seamens Church, 317 East
    52nd St, New York, NY 10022. USA. Ph> 1/212/319/0370.  Good luck with
    your studies!