It is no longer news that thousands of families, communities and schools all over the United States welcome visitors and international students into their homes, businesses and schools. This exemplifying citizen diplomacy and person-to-person interaction guarantees that the Americans as well as international visitors learn about each others way of life as well as culture.
The United States Information Agency – USIA is the body that is responsible for the administration of the exchange programs for the purpose of strengthening relations between other countries and the US. The program began by bringing scholars into the United States momentarily for a specific educational objective like conducting research as well as teaching. Host family opportunities ensued with the introduction of the exchange program by the United States as families have the options of choosing the participant to be hosted by them.
How to Apply for Host Family Opportunities
Families are always eager to host different categories of participants because of the host family opportunities involved. Nevertheless, an intended host family must file an application to be a host family. Therefore, you must follow two steps to apply for host family opportunities.
The first step to apply for host family opportunities is to make a decision regarding the applicant you would like to host as there is a list of programs and each program contained certain information that is channeled towards hosts. Therefore, as host, you must know the list of programs as contained in the information list for you to be able to decide the participants you will host. Consequently, the list of programs to choose your participants from includes the following;
The Intern, Au Pair, Government Visitor, Trainee, Summer Work Travel, Teacher, International Visitor, Alien Physician, Professor and Research Scholar, Secondary School Student, Short-Term Scholar and Summer Work Travel, Flight Training, Specialists, International Visitor and Government Visitor Programs.
The second step to applying for host family opportunities is by getting in touch with any of the chosen sponsors for the designated program. Those organizations that run the exchange program and hook up hosts with participants are the designated sponsors. Hence, notable designated sponsors of exchange programs are:
The Camp Counselors, USA/Work Experience USA, Council for Educational Travel, Council on International Educational Exchange, Cultural HomeStay International, Intrax Work/Travel, Philadelphia International Institute, American Professional Exchange among others.