BRAZILIAN EXCHANGE STUDENT MURILO Frazeo stands beside Woodland High School Principal John Shoup. Woodland High School welcomes several exchange students every year from NW Services’ PEACE Program and Shoup introduces them during an assembly at the beginning of every year.
APPROXIMATELY 20 EXCHANGE STUDENTS are paired with host families in Clark County every year through NW Services, Lara Suhr from Germany (left), Angelica Mateus from Colombia (center) and Frederik Laursen from Denmark (right) were among five students to attend Woodland High School last year.
Every year, as students return to the classroom, an influx of young high school students from around the world are given the opportunity to come to the United States and get real world experience through exchange programs.
Since 1996, NW Services, Inc’s PEACE Program has paired exchange students with host families across the country. And, since 2005, they’ve been working to bring them to Clark County high schools.
“Last year, we were able to place 230 students in schools in the U.S., with about 70 of them being in Washington, Oregon and California,” said Program Supervisor Nancy Roberts. “We also are looking for families interested in volunteering to host these students for the coming year.”
Roberts anticipates as many as 12-20 students could be coming to Clark County schools in Battle Ground, Ridgefield, La Center, and Woodland and there’s no guarantee that every family who took part last year will do so again this year.
“We do have some who go that route while we have others who only host students every other year,” said Roberts. “Because of that, we’re always willing to consider new families interested in the program.”
To be a part of the PEACE Program as a host family, volunteers must be able to provide room and board to their perspective student for a period of five-to-10 months.
“The great thing about the program is that we are truly wide-open for volunteers,” said Roberts. “We don’t care if you’re single, married, working, retired, have kids, have no kids, gay, straight, whatever your background, we will consider it.”
Under U.S. State Department guidelines, host families for exchange students attending public schools are not eligible for financial compensation. Roberts noted that in recent years that has been a point of confusion for potential volunteers.
“We’ve had some families expecting to be paid based on what they may have heard from friends who’ve been in the program before,” said Roberts. “The J1 visa program, which covers public schools, is a non-pay program, while families who host private school exchange students in the F1 visa program may be eligible for compensation.”
This year’s crop of exchange students are expected to come from all around the globe, including China, Japan and southeast Asia, Europe and South America,
“We usually have kids from 20 different countries and host families can choose from students from a particular country,” said Roberts. “For example, we have some families who like to host Italian or Asian students because they may have familiarity with those countries.”
Woodland resident and host mother Peggy Harris welcomed Frederik Laursen from Denmark last year. Laursen is one of five students at the high school and Harris said it was an opportunity to make a difference and learn about different cultures and nations.
“We enjoyed the experience very much,” said Harris. “We loved the kids and it helped expand our horizons so I hope to do it again.”
Cheri and Sam Nigro have hosted three Italian students through the PEACE Program as well as three Japanese students in the summer with other programs. Along with having four children of their own, Cheri said the experience has been well worth being involved.
“My husband’s father was from Sicily so we were always looking to find ways to get in touch with that part of the world, so this provided an excellent opportunity,” Nigro said. “We would ask our own children when they reached their senior year of high school if they wanted to have an exchange student with them, and all but one said they would. It also gave us a chance to revisit the students in their own homes when we travelled to Italy ourselves and they got to be the hosts for us.”
Nigro said that communication between host families and the students is key and that most people who say they have bad experiences hosting exchange students tend to overlook that aspect.
“It’s important for both sides because it allows you to set expectations for the student and they can have a better understanding of what to expect while they are here. Because they’re coming from another country, if you can make it feel like they’re in a place where they’re welcome and safe, it does make the experience much better,” said Nigro.
Roberts added that early applicants will have a larger pool of students to choose from and if there are not enough spaces in Clark County this year, the remaining students will be placed elsewhere in the country.
“We’ve had good luck in this area with finding hosts for these students and I’ve been told repeatedly by both the parents and the students about how great the experience was for them,” said Roberts.
The deadline for students to be placed for the 2014 school year is Sat., Aug. 31. More information about NW Services’ PEACE Program can be found at their website, www.nw-services.com, or by contacting Nancy Roberts, (360) 253-9239 or via email, NancyR@nw-services.com.
