Questions you might have are listed below. Click on the link to jump to the answers.
There are almost as many answers as there are exchange students and host families combined.
Some families host because they believe it is contributing to world peace. Some families host because they want to learn more about another part of the world. Some families host because it is fun.
In the first few weeks, it's like having a guest in your home: an extremely interesting guest because your exchange student might come from a part of the world you have only dreamed about or perhaps a part of the world that you've never dreamed about because you never even knew it existed before an AFS volunteer pulled out this student's application.
After a while your student stops being a guest and slowly and gradually becomes a part of your family. Your life starts revolving around your local high school (if it didn't already). You wake up one day and realize you have a teenager (or another teenager) in the house, with all the good and bad that implies.
Time starts to move faster and faster. Before you know it, it's time for your AFSer to start the journey home. And suddenly you realize your heart is broken. It has been a tremendous year.
An AFS volunteer will meet with your family in your home to talk about what your family is like and what you are interested in. We try to see if you have particular requirements (must be a girl? must be a boy? must be from a Spanish speaking country? Must be Italian?) and wishes (sports nut? academically-minded? needs to be religious? needs to be NOT religious? artistic? musical?)
Once the volunteer has a rough idea of what the family is looking for, the volunteer will sift through literally hundreds of applications looking for two or three or four possibles.
Then the family looks at the applications and decides if any of them sound like a good match for their family.
All kinds. It doesn't get any simpler than that.
The stereotypical family is the nuclear family with a son or daughter in high school. This is a family form that has its advantages - the exchange student has a built-in guide to the high school and an easier way of meeting and making friends with other students in the high school.
BUT, it is not the only kind of family that can have a very successful exchange experience.
AFS has successfully placed students with empty nesters, with childless couples, with single parent families, and with families having only elementary age children.
The key requirement for a host family is a genuine desire to host, to learn, and to enjoy the multi-cultural experience.
AFS requires host families to provide their student with a bed and three square meals / day.
During school, families provide either the means for the student to pack a lunch or an allowance to permit the student to buy a school lunch.
It is preferable if the students have their own bedroom, but it is not required. Students may share a bedroom with a (same sex) host brother or host sister, but must have their own bed.
That is the total of the required costs for host families. Most families choose to provide much more than that for their students.
Generally speaking we expect that if the host family takes their student out to eat, the host family pays. If the student goes out with friends to a restaurant without the family, the student would pay.
Many families take their students on vacation with them. Some families can not afford to do that.
Student book fees is a difficult area. Indiana is unusual in the amount of cost for book rentals. Some (very few) high schools provide book rental for exchange students at no cost. Some families pay book fees and don't worry about it. Some families can not afford to pay book fees and the student must pay. If neither the family nor the student can afford book fees, there are some funds available from the Indiana Area Team. The funds come from our Long Distance Phone Service. At present, it does not generate sufficient funds to cover book fees for all students, but we will look at book fees on a case-by-case basis.
Students come with their own health insurance paid as part of their AFS tuition. That cost should not be an issue for host families.
Yes, AFS students come with good medical coverage. At the time of this writing, AFS students are covered by Global Benefits in Washington, DC. Host families are given information on whom to contact if necessary.
The health insurance does not cover a) sports physicals, b) pre-existing conditions, or c) dental or optical costs. These costs are the responsibility of the student's natural parents. Before arranging for any of these items, host parents are asked to contact AFS who will discuss the situation and payment requirements with the natural parents before proceeding.
Host families are encouraged to make the AFS student a part of their family in all ways. Students look forward to an opportunity to see another part of the country. Due to complications with visas, etc, AFS students should not be taken out of the country.
It is important to remember that the students have natural families back home and occasionally there are family emergencies back home. If the vacation will take you away from home for more than a long weekend, we ask that you inform AFS where you will be and how to reach you in case the natural family needs to reach your student quickly.
AFS has three strong rules that every AFS student knows. Violation of these rules are grounds for being sent home IMMEDIATELY. The three rules are: No Drugs. No Driving. No Hitchhiking.
No Drugs:
Possession and use of drugs can not be allowed by AFS unless medically prescribed. Students have no immunity from any of our laws. In addition, AFS believes that use of illegal drugs greatly takes away from the benefits of the exchange program for the student, the host family, and the community.
No Driving:
All AFS students are forbidden to drive cars (this rule applies to driving anywhere: private land, driveways, or parking lots). Students are also forbidden to drive trucks, motorcycles, motorscooters, and powered bicycles. They may not fly airplanes. They may take a written driver education course, but they are not allowed to participate in behind-the-wheel education. The no-driving rule applies REGARDLESS of whether liability insurance has been purchased.
If your student wants to operate other vehicles such as a snowmobile, motorboat, or tractor, the student must have your permission and must obtain the natural parents' permission in writing.
No Hitchhiking:
This policy is specific to students hosted in the United States. While hitchhiking may be a common form of traveling in some countries, it is considered a potentially dangerous activity in our country.
Abuse of alcohol, as with other drugs, is not condoned by AFS. Students should be told the legal drinking age in your state and that they face the possibility of arrest if they do not obey the law. They should be made aware of any open container laws as well.
Many international students are accustomed to drinking alcohol at home but, as in all matters, they should understand and respect your family's views.
AFS has many different options, starting with a large variety of country choices. Every country has different application deadlines, grade requirements, departure dates, return dates, program lengths, and vaccination requirements. If you are interested in sending programs, please contact the AFS Regional Office. See our contact page for Contacting AFS Volunteers and Staff
No.
In general, "support" means providing the benefit of AFS' 60+ years experience in exchange programs to help families have the best exchange experience they can have.
We provide a number of orientations throughout the year. Some are for host families alone, some are for exchange students alone, and some are joint orientations. They include: Host Family Pre-Arrival Orientation, Arrival Camp, Fall Orientation, the Mid-Year Conference, Pre-departure Orientation.
Orientations are to answer questions that you might have, to talk about how things are going, to offer suggestions on how to handle issues that might arise, and to have a good time together.
Each student and family will also have a liaison. This is a person who will meet with your student once each month or so, to talk to the student and listen to the student and to help the student work through any communication problem he or she might be having with the family. In addition, the liaison will talk with the family on a regular basis. If there are any issues that you need to talk to the student about, but you don't know how to approach him or her, you can talk to the liaison who can either offer suggestions or serve as an intermediary.
There are many roles to play for people interested in helping out with international students. Most people think of hosting as the only way to get involved, but there is much more. In the following text, we discuss:
Hosting for an academic year
Hosting for a calendar year
Liaison
High School Co-ordination
Family and Outbound student interviews
Orientations
This is the most common and best known hosting experience. A family will provide a place to live and things to eat while their exchange daughter or son attends the local high school. Usually students arrive in mid-August, two to three weeks before school starts, and leave in mid-July.
Academic year students typically enter the high school as seniors.
Students from Australia and New Zealand typically come to the United States on a calendar year basis rather than an academic year. Because the seasons are reversed 'down under' their academic year follows the calendar year. Calendar year students come in early January and leave in late December.
Calendar year students typically enter the high school as juniors and are promoted to seniors over the summer.
Each student and host family has a liaison person who is not a member of the host family. The liaison is expected to meet with the student about once each month for dinner or a movie or some other entertainment, as a means of developing a personal relationship with the student. The liaison will also talk to the family at least once / month to see how things are going from the family's perspective.
Occasionally, some problems develop between the student and the host family which the student feels uncomfortable discussing with the host family or in which the family feels uncomfortable discussing with the student. The liaison is intended to be a listening ear for the student and/or family and to help the host family and the student resolve problems should they occur.
Before students can be placed with a family, it is essential that AFS volunteers determine that the local high school is willing to take the student. Most high school reserve a limited number of slots in which they will accept exchange students. It is rare that all the slots are filled, but it is important for the local AFS volunteers to verify that slots are available and to reserve these slots for the incoming students.
Before placing a student with a host family, AFS requires a local volunteer to interview the prospective family, to visit the home, and to make sure that the student will be in safe and acceptable living accommodations.
Due to the mental strain on students acquiring fluency in a foreign language and living away from home, possibly for the first time, it is strongly recommended that the student has a room to his or her self. It is not however, strictly required. AFS volunteers need to be satisfied that the host family and home is adequate to provide the student with a rewarding and beneficial exchange experience.
Similarly, before accepting a U.S. student for placement overseas, AFS volunteers conduct an interview to see if an exchange experience would be beneficial to the student.
The students participate in a variety of orientations throughout their AFS experience. In addition to a number of orientations and information sessions the students get in their home countries prior to arrival, students in the United States go through 5 orientation sessions during their year.
Students are given a Welcome Orientation upon arrival in the United States. Typically students arrive at the camp late in the evening, spend the night, have orientation sessions the next day and meet their host families about 5 p.m.
Because the exchange experience is so new and different from anything the students have experienced before, Welcome Orientation is not usually very effective at preparing the students for their experience. Consequently, AFS local groups provide a Fall Orientation about 6 weeks after the students have moved in with their host families. This orientation, given once the students have a taste of life in a foreign country, is designed to help the students cope with the issues of getting along in a foreign culture. By this time, the students understand what problems they face in communication and cultural differences, so they are now ready to listen to ways of dealing with these problems.
Fall Orientation is organized, planned, and carried out by local AFS volunteers. Local volunteers are needed to help plan Fall Orientation, to help with transportation, to provide food, and to lead orientation based on AFS provided study guides.
In January, the students gather for Mid-Year Orientation. The purpose of Mid-Year is to evaluate the students' progress and to make mid-course corrections if the students are encountering out of the ordinary difficulties. A major benefit of the Mid-Year Orientation is for the students to share stories of the bumps along the road and how they were overcome. Hearing each other's experiences enable the students to see that they are not alone in the difficulties. Reflecting on their experiences help the students see that problems they thought were insurmountable last month turned out to be nothing at all.
Mid-Year Orientation is organized, planned, and carried out by local AFS volunteers. Local volunteers are needed to help plan, to help with transportation, to provide food, and to lead orientation based on AFS provided study guides.
Pre-departure orientation is given as part of the process of going home. One thing students typically are not prepared for is culture shock when they return home. A year in a foreign country changes the students in ways they never expected. Return orientation serves to focus the students on a look backward - what this year has meant to them - and a look forward - how to adjust to the student's home culture after a year in the foreign culture.
Families also attend pre-departure orientation as they have adjustments to make as well. It is difficult to say goodbye and the pre-departure orientation provides a way to start that process.
When it is time for the students to say goodbye to their host families, the students go through a period of mourning. At the same time, they are happy and excited to see their natural families again. AFS has found out that it is easier on the students if there is some time between the final goodbye to the host family and the first hello to the natural family. End of Stay provides a transition and an opportunity to get over the worst of the mourning period before returning home.
Between the time host families pick their students up at Arrival Camp and the time they say goodbye at End of Stay, AFS conducts three mandatory orientations: Fall Orientation, Mid-Year Conference, and Pre-Departure Orientation.
Students also have mandatory orientations immediately before meeting their host families for the first time and immediately after saying goodbye to their host families.
These orientations are mandatory for three reasons: 1) they help families and students adjust to the cross-cultural experience and permit volunteers to use the wealth of experience that AFS has to help families and student wrest the maximum possible benefit from the exchange, 2) families and students find the gatherings enjoyable, and 3) all exchange programs are required to provide these orientations to meet CSIET standards.
CSIET is the Council on Standards for International Educational Travel. CSIET promulgates requirements for exchange programs to be "listed" as following standards. Under U.S. government regulations, exchange programs must be listed by CSIET in order to be able to get J1 Visas for their exchange students. Most high schools require exchange programs to be listed by CSIET before they will permit that program to place students in the school.
AFS is proud of its affiliation with CSIET and believes that the Council's standards are a necessary part of any reputable exchange program.
For more information on CSIET, see their web site.