One day a few months before I left my corporate job, I saw an ad on Monster.com from Academic Year in America. They were looking for Local Coordinators to work with host families and foreign exchange students.

My first thought was “anthropology in action,” as high school exchange programs are also cultural exchanges. I’ve been on the Social Sciences faculty at one of our local colleges for years, teaching cultural anthropology online and in the classroom, but hadn’t been “in the field” as it were, for a very long time and was missing that sense of witnessing and contributing something of value through direct, community interaction. I thought this kind of work might align very nicely with what I was missing.

I applied and became a Local Coordinator in April 2008 and now recruit families throughout the Dallas area and work with them and their exchange students throughout the school year.

Your family is the typical host family

My husband and I also had the chance to host a student ourselves for a semester and can testify that it is one of the most rewarding and personally satisfying things we’ve done as a family (and I can tell you, too we didn’t think we were prepared. See our FAQ page to see if you think you’re not prepared either!).

As an LC I can pre-select students and then work to place them by the time school starts. If however, I haven’t found a family for my pre-selections, I, by default, become the host family. This is what happened with Ann-Christin.

We know she was the best student out of the nearly 1,000 that come to the U.S. with AYA every year. Perhaps we are biased. But she was definitely representative of the quality and caliber of students selected by AYA. She was excited about the year ahead, adjusted quickly to her new home and household, got along famously at school, started practicing yoga(!), made lots of new friends and is going to be sad to leave!

Friends who’ve hosted and other families I’m currently working with offer the same good words about their students. They are often amazed at how quickly their students adjust to their new routines and the idiosyncrasies of American high school, and are pleased with how well they do in school and extra-curricular activities.

Diplomacy starts at home. Your home.

Exchange programs are sponsored (and monitored) by the U.S. State Department for the purpose of fostering cross-cultural friendships, and strengthening relations between the U.S. and participating countries. In a recent op-ed piece published in the Christian Science Monitor, Sherry Mueller, president of the National Council of International Visitors describes several misconceptions about U.S. diplomacy, including:

Myth 3: Public diplomacy is the government’s job.
Undeniably, there are appropriate and indispensable roles for government. But unless we accept the fact that each American has a role to play in putting Uncle Sam’s best foot forward, we underutilize our best resource. As “The Ugly American” (a provocative and instructive novel published 50 years ago) put it, “Average Americans, in their natural state … are the best ambassadors a country can have.”

Imagine what kind of state our diplomatic efforts would be in were we to leave them entirely up to the government. There is only so much administration and tax money to go around the world and doesn’t it seem like for every step we take in the direction of peaceful relations with one country that another country on the brink of chaos takes us two steps back?

My optimistic feelings about the new American era notwithstanding, hosting an exchange student is the best opportunity available to the average American citizen for taking an active role in U.S. diplomacy efforts. Show a young person from another country what is amazing, unique, and positively American about living and working and going to school in your community.

You will have made yourself and your family a friend for life and can know you’ve contributed positively to your country’s efforts at long-term peace and stability.