MANKATO — There’s a shortage of host families for foreign-exchange students in the region, with 25 unplaced high school students, said host parent and international Experience local coordinator Mary Clare Wyrowski.
The organization is based in Northfield and places exchange students with host families.
“Parents or families need three things to host a student: a bed, a willingness to open their homes and lots of love to add another child to their family. Those are the three most important things to have to be a good host family,” North Mankato’s Wyrowski said.
Mandy McClellan, north central regional director for international Experience, said sometimes being a host family is daunting. But it shouldn’t be, she said.
“People hesitate when it’s time to bring someone into their home,” she said. “It seems a little daunting. But students fit in so seamlessly because this is their dream. They want to be immersed with an American family and see what their day-to-day life is like.”
Some students come for the entire school year, whereas others come only for a semester. Stipends are available to families hosting students who are attending private schools but not for those attending public schools.
Jason Quint and his Mankato family hosted an exchange student last year and enjoyed it so much they are hosting another student this year. Jason and his wife, Heather, have three teenage daughters and find a female exchange student to be a good fit for their family.
“It was great,” Jason said of last year’s experience with Blanca Sanchez of Spain. “She became really good friends with all of our kids. She was very interested in everything we were doing and interested in trying new things, which was refreshing.”
Sanchez enjoyed the Quint family’s Christmas traditions, trying new foods, attending a rodeo and going inner tubing on a river, among other activities. She also cooked Spanish food for the family and taught them about celebrating a holiday of hers, which was Three Kings Day in January.
In August the family will welcome Marta Caballero Diaz, also from Spain. The 15-year-old will be a sophomore at Mankato West High School.
Jason Quint encourages other families to serve as hosts to foreign exchange students.
“I think it opens them up to new traditions and to be receptive to try new things, not to be closed off,” he said. “It’s easy to stay in a little bubble. We don’t learn new things that way.
“We should expand our exposure to the world to see what else is out there. I think it’s important when we pass on traditions we have. When we are able to share traditions with someone new, it reinforces how important those traditions are to the family.”
Quint said “so many good things come from it. It’s worth the risk.”
Wyrowski said 10 to 15 host families are needed to place additional exchange students in the area. She started hosting in 1991 and has hosted about 30 exchange students, including ones from Spain, Turkey, Germany, France, Japan, Australia and Italy.
“It has allowed me to travel to places in Europe because these kids become family,” she said. “I have been to Spain and stayed with the family of a student I hosted. I traveled to Italy and stayed with the family of a student I hosted, and I’m going to Germany in the fall to stay with a family of a student I hosted. It makes for lasting friendships abroad and makes us here in America realize what we have and how lucky we are to be here.”
Wyrowski said local coordinators help host families navigate the experience.
“People don’t realize how much fun it is,” she said, “and they’re afraid to open their doors because they don’t know what to expect. But we as local coordinators are there to help them navigate these situations and we are their backups if they have questions or need help.”
There is a lot of support for the host families, she said. “It’s not just bringing a child here.”
If families are interested in hosting an exchange student, they can go to the international Experience website at ie-usa.org.
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