Share! Southwest is looking for host families for seven foreign exchange students for the spring semester.
“I’m an area coordinator for Share! Southwest and we have about seven students coming (to the United States) that need a host family before January 15,” said Leigh Smith Morgan of Share! Shouthwest.
“We have, currently, seven boys from Germany, Italy and Brazil that are looking for homes. That’s a five-month experience, and a host family provides a home, transportation to and from school, and an experience of a lifetime for a student get to know what it’s like to be an American student and live in an American home.”
Morgan expressed her desire to place students in smaller, rural communities like our own.
“Students thrive in the smaller communities. Pampa, Borger, Sunray- we have students in Sunray that are thriving like you wouldn’t believe because it’s such a unique experience. When you get into some of these smaller school districts, they have the opportunity to participate in all kinds of things and really get to know the students in school and be part of the whole atmosphere. So, we love when we can place a student in a smaller or a rural school district because that just offers students so many more opportunities,” she said.
Once students have been placed for the spring semester, Morgan says that Share! Southwest will begin looking for placement for fall-semester students.
“Once we finish placing these (students) by January 15, we start hitting that hard. So if a family can’t host now, then that’s something they could do in the fall. It’s a great time to reach out to us and get information,” she shared.
“If host families are interested, they can get in touch with us and we could find a student that works best for them. That allows them to get to know the student before they come (to America). That’s the neat thing about starting in January- picking a student for the fall gives them six, seven months to prepare for that student and to get to know that student.”
If you are interested in hosting a student in the fall semester, you’ll have to move fast.
“If they want to do fall-only students, they will want to get in pretty soon because we usually fill those pretty quickly,” Morgan said.
“Most families either do a full year, (which is) a ten-month academic year, or a five-month semester program.”
Those wishing for a shorter experience can act as a Welcome Family.
“We do offer Welcome Family (spots). A welcome family welcomes the students and you get them acclimated. They start school, and we begin looking about six weeks into it for them a new family (for the rest of the semester),” Morgan explained.
The requirements for a family to host a student are as follows:
“They (host) have to pass a criminal background check, they have to be 25 or older, and the student has to have their own own bed. They can share a room, but they have to have their own bed,” Morgan said.
“It is also a volunteer (program), so they (host families) do not get paid.”
Information is readily available for any interested party by calling Leigh Morgan at 806-654-1044, calling Share! Southwest’s toll free number 1-800-941-3738, or by going online to www.sharesouthwest.org.
“We can go through (with potential host families) answering any questions or help them kind of see what that it looks like to be a host. If they just holler at us, we’ll give them all kinds of information.”
