Missouri Gateway AFS 
HOSTING AN EXCHANGE STUDENT
ARE YOU READY TO HOST A FOREIGN EXCHANGE STUDENT?
- Do you have a house or apartment?
- Do you have a spare bed? (can share room, but needs own bed)
Is there the desire (heart)? - Everybody in the family wants to, or is willing to give the addition of a foreign teenager to your family a very sincere try. Family is defined as the providing of a caring and nurturing home, and that means a family can be single people, single parents, adults without kids, adults with kids at home, empty nesters, and whatever other configuration will provide a quality experience for someone else’s child from a foreign country. AFS carefully screens and interviews all students coming to the U.S., and, likewise, people sending their kids to the U.S. will expect that AFS interviews all families wanting to host a student, and we do. - Are you open minded and willing to learn about and accept or accommodate cultural differences, as the AFS student will NOT sound, act, or necessarily have the same beliefs and behaviors as you?
- Are you willing to provide transportation? (AFS students cannot drive)
- Can you accept some expense? You have no expenses getting them here and home, they have health insurance, and students are to bring spending money for clothes, personal items and most school expenses, but food, lodging and transportation are expected to be the responsibility of the host family. There is a charitable contribution allowance from the US government of about $500 for having a foreign exchange student
- Will you have your student present for the required AFS functions during the year?
- Are you willing to talk about “how’s it going?” with a local AFS liaison contact each month, as is part of our agreement with the government to keep track of our kids.
- And if you fall in love with your student, they are required to go back to their home country in June. You have to let them go!
- If you are a family that can look at this list and say YES to everything and have a sense of adventure and excitement about having a foreign student become part of your life, and they of your life, you just might be the right person/people to host an AFS student from one of nearly 50 different countries.
If you think you might be the right family for this, or if you have many questions (and all prospective hosting families do), talk to AFS in one of several ways:
Visit the AFS USA website: www.afsusa.org
Give us a call: 1-800-AFS INFO (1-800-237-4636)
Send an email to a Local Volunteer
AFS’ 3 Key Rules for Students:
Hosted students are expected to obey all U.S. laws. In addition, AFS has 3 rules to which all participants must agree. If students break any of them, they may be sent home.
No illegal drugs
No driving
No hitchhiking
Missouri Gateway AFS Hosting Notes (Fall 2009):
We have 31 AFS students who arrived in August and are busy with school, homework, sports, music and many other activities in their new American homes!
More students will arrive in January for a semester. Once these students' applications become available, you will be able to see a picture and brief bio for each of these students if you click on "Student Biographies" to the left. That section requires a password. Contact Debbie Veatch if you need a password.
Please let Debbie Veatch know if you or someone else might be interested in more information about hosting. Check out the AFS website at www.afsusa.org for much more information.
