By Esteban Fernandez
For Times West Virginian
Fairmont — Before Tori Foster’s international exchange student arrives, Foster has a lot of work to do to get her home ready for her visitor.
Part of the challenge is readying a room for someone Foster doesn’t quite know yet. It’s a balancing act, between making space for a stranger to make their own without sacrificing a sense of warmth from the host family. Foster said striking that balance was harder than anticipated.
“We wanted to make sure the room we had was empty enough that she could add her own things, touches from home, things that make her feel more acclimated to being in a different country,” Foster said. “But we also wanted to make sure we didn’t make it feel like a hotel room, so she didn’t feel like a stranger staying in our house.”
Foster, based in Fairmont, is one of 13 families in West Virginia who will host an international exchange student next month. The International Student Exchange Program brings high school students from around the world next month to experience American style adolescence for terms ranging from a single school semester up to an entire year. Foster’s student will be from Germany. She arrives a couple days before East Fairmont High starts its fall semester, where the student will attend classes.
“So she’ll pretty much be immediately thrown into that mix,” Foster said.
For Foster, it’s her first time hosting an exchange student. Foster and her husband made the decision to host an exchange student after seeing a call for host families from Allison Shriver, area representative for International Student Exchange. Shriver lives in Beckley, and places students throughout the state.
Shriver wants as many foreign students to have the experience of being in the exchange program as possible. She frequently posts short bios of students who want to come to the U.S. through the exchange program to social media. This year, she hopes to reach 16 students placed with families. She said West Virginia is an ideal place for the program.
“Every high school I’ve placed students in, they always have a wonderful experience with the kids at the school,” Shriver said. “They’re thrilled to have them there. I have a friend who does this in the Cleveland area in Ohio, and she says every single high school has 4, 6, 8 international students placed there. I have kids placed at some of the smaller area high schools, and they’re the first exchange student that’s been there in 15 years and the kids are so excited about it. They’re like super celebrities.”
Shriver said being at a smaller school also affords international students the opportunity to enjoy the full high school experience, such as playing on the football team or doing cheerleading. There’s less competition, which makes accessibility easier, compared to larger schools.
Shriver said she screens the host families. If the host family passes an initial check, they get an application. The family fills out their application, meanwhile an international student fills out a questionnaire to determine their fit. Shriver tries to match families with students who will match in terms of interests and background. She says there are no bad hosts or bad students, only bad fits.
“This student from Germany came and he really wanted to live on a farm, he wanted to live a rural life,” Shriver said. “He wanted to see animals, he was really excited about it. I found him a lovely family that loved hunting and fishing and bonfires and I thought this is going to be great. And he got here, and they brought a deer home and hung it in the tree to do all the things. He was like, they’re trying to terrify me by murdering animals and hanging them up.”
Shriver reassured the German teen that was not what his host family was trying to do. Shriver relocated the boy to Morgantown and found a different student, one from Brazil, to stay with the rural family. The Brazillian student had a much better experience with rural life.
International exchange students are responsible for their own expenses and the host families are volunteers. Most of the money the students pay go to the United States for things such as travel visas and documentation.
Students also have to pre-purchase medical insurance as well as for their flight to and from the U.S. Students are also responsible for their own cell phone, school supplies and any sports equipment or clothes. The host family provides a safe place to stay and three square meals a day, of which school meal programs cover breakfast and lunch.
Tiffany Lynch’s family in Beckley has been a host family twice for the program. She said the experience enriched not only the student, but her family as well. Lynch has six children. Part of being a host family means being a surrogate parent to a child, while respecting the wishes of the child’s parents back home. Even though there’s a language barrier, Lynch still did her best to communicate with the parents back home and ensure they were kept in the loop whenever a situation arose.
Having six kids means taking them abroad is out of the question. Lynch said her family can’t drop $70,000 to fly to Rome, where her second exchange student was from. But the exchange program allowed some of Italian culture to come to her home, where her kids could be exposed to it. Lynch said lifelong friendships are formed through the program.
“Our twin sons, who are super picky eaters, they never would try new things for me, but they’re going to try new things from her,” Lynch said. “And just asking questions, it also made our kids appreciate what they have even more.”
Families interested in hosting a student can reach out to [email protected]. Shriver said the deadline is two weeks before the local start of school.
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