MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Have you ever wanted to experience another culture without ever leaving your home, or share your own culture with someone from another part of the world? Families in central Alabama have an opportunity to do both by hosting an international exchange student through the Council for Educational Travel USA (CETUSA).
Across the world, many students dream of having the traditional American high school experience, from riding a yellow school bus to attending football games and homecoming. “They’ve watched American movies, TV shows, and they want to come do that,” said Jen Bosko, the Montgomery local coordinator for CETUSA. “Students want to ride on the school bus. They don’t have homecomings. They’re excited to try homecomings. Just anything in American culture.”
Bosko said host families in the River Region can provide that experience for students from more than 20 countries who come to the United States to attend local public schools. “These students, most of them just go to your local public school,” Bosko said. “So you’re opening your house, opening your hearts.”
Host families are expected to provide a bedroom, three meals a day and transportation to extracurricular activities. Bosko said students arrive with spending money and their own insurance, so families are primarily providing a safe, supportive home and a chance to be part of daily life in the community.
“They come with spending money. They come with their own insurance,” Bosko said. “So you are providing them the experience.”
Some students stay for a semester while others remain for the full school year. Bosko said students typically arrive about a week before classes begin and leave about a week after the semester ends.
Host families are not randomly assigned a student, Bosko said. Families work with local coordinators to review student profiles, including letters, videos and photos to help find a match that fits their household.
“I can pull out files and send them to you,” Bosko said. “And the files are a letter from the student to their potential host family, a video from the student to their host family, a letter from the parent to the host family. They have to include some pictures, like where they live. They have some of their friend groups. So when you’re looking and you’re picking, you have a chance to say, ‘Oh, this is a student that’s going to fit into our house the best.’”
CETUSA is asking families to apply by July to host students for the upcoming fall semester, and Bosko said the earlier a family applies, the better. For exchange students, she said, living with a host family can be the opportunity of a lifetime.
