Open Your Hearts and Homes
Host a Student for a Short-Term Stay
New & Exciting Experiences Await You This Summer
Compass USA invites international students to come and live and experience the USA through homestays in the Lehigh Valley area. These groups have been participating in this program for the past several summers and are growing exponentially each year. This summer there will be several groups of students coming from Spain, France and China and residing right here in the Valley. These students come in the summer for a short-term placement with the hopes of making life-long connections and to better their English skills. While the students are visiting there are activities planned in some groups, classes taking place in others and some groups without any plans so that the students can solely come to be a part of their host family’s lives! The trips begin in the end of June with some arriving June 20th and some arriving July 17th and some are here for 10 days and some are here for 28 days…a fit for many different homes!
Compass USA would not exist without their amazing host families though. A host family is anyone that is open to the idea of welcoming a student into their home and has at least two individuals in a home (single parents, couples) unless they choose to host an adult! A student does not need their own room, just a bed in a room that they can share with a host sibling. All families are asked to provide three meals a day and to help out when they can with any transportation. The experience for these students is one that cannot be compared to most. Students leave here with better English skills, better knowledge of what it is like living in America and typically with a new American family. On the flip side, families that host are rewarded with learning more about another culture without needing to leave their home or community and get to see daily sights and experiences through the eyes of someone experiencing them for the first time. Many families state that hosting also brings their family closer together as they work to entertain and keep the student comfortable as a unit. Another wonderful plus to hosting an international exchange student is how wonderful this looks on a college resume or an Honor Society application as well as hosts receiving volunteer hours for their time on activities with their students.
Our family has hosted for the past three summers and has gained lifelong, extended family members. Each student that enters our home leaves us in tears and lasting memories. While the students are here visiting there is always a lot of local support from previous host families and program coordinators and volunteers. Each student is insured medically for any issues that may arise when they are visiting. In addition to meeting students internationally it is a great way to meet families locally. Throughout the time that the students are visiting many families become friends and help each other out and plan pool parties or activities for their families to participate in together. Many students form such an amazing bond with their host families in such a short period of time that they return through the same group or individually in following months.
Compass USA also offers exchanges to other countries as well as international camps so many host siblings then have the opportunity to travel overseas to experience what it is like to live in another country themselves.
If you would like more information about hosting or even working with Compass USA please do not hesitate to contact your local manager, Tiffany Werner, at 484-347-3459 or compasstiffanyw@gmail.com or to check out our website at www.compass-usa.net or to find us on Facebook.
