Q What is the role of a host family?

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  The host family plays a unique and vital role in the international student experience. While providing a safe environment for students to live in, host families provide more than just a room and board experience. Host families provide support for an international student while they are away from home and often help to bridge the cultural gap that students experience. At the same time, host families need to understand that their role is not to replace the student’s natural family. Students in this day and age stay closely connected with their family and friends in their home country – often on a daily basis. The host family needs to respect the student’s culture and native family while also helping the student to adjust to the home and culture they are currently living in.

Q How long do I host for?

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  Typically, you will host a student for a full academic school year, which is usually between nine and ten months. Of course, international students may return back home for certain holidays or family events, and these breaks could last up to two weeks. For instance, students may return home to their families for Christmas, and there may also be a summer break, as well. Whatever the circumstances, we will provide you with more details before you agree to host a particular student.

Q Would I make a great host?

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  Do you have a warm and inviting family? Is your home clean, organized, and comfortable? Do you enjoy bringing new people into your home? Would you make a concerted effort to make someone from a foreign country feel more at ease? If you answered yes to any, or all, of those questions, you would make a perfect host. We invite families from all walks of life to try their hand at hosting international students. We want our pool of host families platform to include a wide spectrum of families – families with different religious beliefs, races, creeds, and socioeconomic backgrounds. We don’t want to exclude any families who believe they can be amazing hosts.

Q Will there be a system of background checks?

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  Yes. Safety for our students is our number one priority. Any family member over age 18 must pass a background check as we want to ensure that all our host homes provide a safe place for each of our students to live and thrive.