Each year, thousands of families, schools and communities across the United States welcome international students and visitors into their homes. They share holiday meals, discuss current events, and visit local sites together. They explore their differences, similarities, values, and beliefs. That person-to-person interaction, exemplifying citizen diplomacy, ensures that Americans and international visitors learn about each other’s culture and way of life…and creates lasting cross-cultural friendships.

Hosting an international exchange student in your home can enrich you, your family, school and community. Hosting international exchange visitors in your community ensures that community members become better informed about and connected to the world beyond U.S. borders.

Host families are as diverse as Americans themselves and are all part of the American experience. Whether or not you are married or have children, you can be a host family. If you and your family are willing to open yourselves to new experiences, share your lives with an extraordinary teenager from a foreign land, and provide guidance, love and support to a young person who is beginning his or her journey into adulthood, then you, too, will be a great host family.