AFS Plea for Host Families

HOST AN AFS FOREIGN EXCHANGE STUDENT (AGE 15-18) NEXT SCHOOL YEAR

HOMES ESPECIALLY NEEDED FOR FAIRBORN AND YELLOW SPRINGS AREAS BUT OTHER DAYTON DISTRICTS TOO.

The Dayton Area AFS Council is looking for local families interested in sharing their home and American values and culture with a foreign exchange student. The 15 to 18-year old international students are carefully screened, fully insured and have studied English usually 4 to 8 years. They come from over 55 countries, including, Austria, Australia, Bolivia, Chile, Brazil, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, and many more.

They will arrive in August in time for the start of the school year and return to their homes at the end of the school year. Throughout their stay AFS volunteers from the Dayton area will plan special events, social gatherings, and orientations for the host family members and the AFS’er. Students are matched with hosts through in-home meetings with prospective families and AFS volunteers, and families may review student applications.

Our AFS students have been hosted by childless couples ,singles, “empty nesters,” and single parent families with great success and happiness in past years, so do not think that hosts are only the typical, nuclear families. Hosting an AFS’er of the opposite sex of your own child is encouraged if the family has the interest. Your child can have the “brother” or “sister” they never had! The important things are your “open heart” and desire to make a good home and hosting experience for a child who is coming to live for 10 months (August-June) in the U.S. experiencing American life and to share their own country’s language, history, and culture. The primary expense to the host is to provide food and to pay for the AFS’er when on outings with the family. The students have their own spending money.

Information about programs (and scholarships!) for American students to go study abroad with AFS is also available at the website: www.afs.org.

Usually 5-8 students from the Dayton area go abroad with AFS annually.
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For more information, contact Marla Gamble at 233-6190 (email: mjgceramic@aol.com) or see www.afs.org to do your research and to indicate your interest to be contacted about hosting.