Host families sought for student exchange program
By Dennis Hill
Published in News on June 19, 2005 2:00 AM
The North Carolina 4-H program is seeking families to host foreign exchange students for a month this summer and for 10 months beginning this fall.
Families are needed to host Japanese exchange students, ages 12 to 15, for four weeks this summer, from July 23 through Aug. 18. The program especially needs families willing to host boys.
The program is open to families with children close in age to and of the same gender as the Japanese student they would be hosting. Families without children or without children in the age range are needed to host Japanese adult chaperones. Families need not be involved in the 4-H program or speak Japanese. The students have all studied English and are anxious to use it. Host families must agree to provide meals, lodging and supervision and be willing to incorporate the exchange student into American family life.
Host families are also needed for a 10-month exchange program involving high school students from Japan, Korea and the newly independent states of Ukraine and Uzbekistan. Exchange students will arrive in North Carolina in August and stay with host families for 10 months, attending local public high schools. Families do not have to have children of the same age or gender living in the home in order to host. All students in the program have command of English and have been selected through a rigorous application and interview process.
North Carolinians interested in hosting students should contact Carolyn Langley or Stuart Bullock with the North Carolina 4-H International Exchange Program at 336.318.6000 or by email (carolyn_langley@ncsu.edu) for an application and more information. In addition, 4-H agents at North Carolina Cooperative Extension county centers throughout the state can provide information.
The 4-H International Exchange Program is one of the largest exchange programs involving North American and Japanese youth in the world. Since it began in 1972, approximately 40,000 Japanese students have visited the United States, and more than 2,000 American 4-H members have visited Japan.