CIEE is in need of host families for August 2015 in Hanover County. We have several students we would like to introduce to you, but first a bit about CIEE and how you can become a host family.
CIEE is a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization and the world leader in international education and exchange. For more than 65 years CIEE has helped thousands of people gain the knowledge and skills necessary to live and work in a globally interdependent and culturally diverse world by offering the most comprehensive, relevant, and valuable exchange programs available.
CIEE creates opportunities that help bring people together. We foster the development of understanding and mutual respect between communities and nations by promoting the exchange of ideas and experiences. We help give students, teachers, and young professionals from across the world skills that make them active and responsible global citizens.
The core values of CIEE are the belief in excellence and integrity, providing the highest quality programs and services, leading by example, and going the extra mile to serve their students and partners. They believe in respect, embracing and celebrating diversity while practicing open and honest communication.
They believe in collaboration. In order to provide programs and services that are truly unparalleled, they draw upon the knowledge, skills, resources, and passion of the entire CIEE community.
Being a CIEE Host Family
CIEE USA High School students live with host families for either 5 or 10 months while attending a U.S. high school. The cultural exchange between your family and the student will help you both gain a deeper understanding of human values that unite all nations across the world. But, what really makes this cross-cultural experience so exceptional are the relationships that evolve into lifelong friendship!
Rebecca Bell is one of the volunteers with CIEE and has worked with high school exchange students. She lives in Richmond with her husband, and has hosted children for years beginning when her own son was just in elementary school and they continue their host family status as empty nesters. It has been a wonderful experience for her family!
CIEE has over 1,700 students from over 40 countries arriving each August for 1 to 2 semesters, and they arrange to provide their spending money and take care of health insurance, participating in school, family, and volunteering. CIEE hosts are single parents, single adults, empty nesters, families with small and/or teenage children. A loving and safe environment is needed. This is the time that CIEE needs to secure hosts for their August students who will arrive in Hanover.
Rebecca has kindly shared some information on a few students that will be arriving in our area and need a home. There are other boys and girls from other countries as well, with interest that include scouts, cooking, tennis, biking, rowing, soccer, horseback riding, swimming, chorus, drama, band, and more!
Meet Tara – Student ID# AUS15017
Tara is a 16 year old female from Australia. Her community project is to help people who are less fortunate, whether working in a soup kitchen or teaching kids from struggling families. Her top five interests are photography and videography, sports, cooking, contemporary music, and cinema – movies. Her favorite sports are track and running, baseball, basketball, hiking, and ice skating.
Tara has done volunteer work in Cambodia helping to teach children and setting up schools. She has also done volunteer work for functions and events, which tie in with her career choice to eventually own her own event management business. She has been to Canada, Singapore, New Zealand, Cambodia, and the Soloman Islands.
Tara has been a Vegetarian for the past four years (including fish and chicken) and has been egg-free for the past three years. She changed her diet because she wanted to have a healthier lifestyle. She is not adverse to others eating meats or egg products (as her family still does) and she does still have milk products in her diet.
Tara would be fine in a home with pets and has no known allergies. She has a 3.00 GPA and would like the opportunity to join a baseball and track team while she is here in the United States.
Meet Kanticha (Wan) – Student ID# OEG15027
Kanticha (Wan) is a bright young woman from Thailand. Her community project is to join and promote an environmental project because our environment worsens every day. People use many chemicals which are damaging to our air, so she wants to grow plants that will help the air. Her top five interests are cinema – movies, reading, photography and videography, traveling, and playing chess and backgammon. Her favorite sports are basketball, volleyball, swimming, tennis, and badminton.
Wan has done volunteer work in cleaning the temples in her community, playing violin for charities, and helping stray dogs. She has played the violin since she was 8 years old and at the age of ten performed in her first orchestra. She is currently in an orchestra of 100 students, and has earned second violin status. Three years ago she learned how to play the guitar as well. She would like to attend medical school and become a doctor.
She has been to Japan, Malaysia, and Singapore.
Wan would also be fine in a home with pets and has no known allergies. She has a 3.80 GPA and would like the opportunity to join a basketball club, swimming club, orchestra society and photography club while she is here in the United States.
Meet Oemer – Student ID# XPL15067
Oemer is a 16 year old young man from Germany. His community project would be to help homeless people and assist in a soup kitchen so that he can bring the homeless their smile back to their faces. His top five interests are body building, watching sports, going to the cinema – watching movies, bowling, and cooking. His favorite sports are soccer, basketball, US Football, badminton, and volleyball.
Oemer is a volunteer paramedic for his school and has plans to study business management. Oemer has been to Austria to ski and spends holidays in Turkey as his family owns a home there.
Oemer would be fine in a home with pets and has a moderate dustmite allergy with no specific treatment required. He has a 2.90 GPA and would like the opportunity to join a soccer or American football team and the drama club as he is good at acting.
Meet Laura – Student ID# DND15003
Laura is a 16 year old female from Slovakia. She wishes to become involved in an environmentally-oriented community project since she is passionate about the environment. Her top five interests are snowboarding, cooking, watching movies – cinema, listening to contemporary music, and reading. Her favorite sports are snow skiing and snow boarding, hiking, swimming, inline skating, and volleyball.
Laura has participated annually in the cleaning of her city and would like to have a career in tourism. She has traveled abroad only for vacations through most of Europe and she has been to Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt.
Laura does not like fish or seafood, but loves going to the sea. She enjoys walking in the city centre with her friends and loves horror films.
Laura would not be able to tolerate a home with pets as she has pollen and animal hair allergies. She has a 3.20 GPA and would like the opportunity to become a part of the cheerleading squad at her host school.
We have invited Rebecca and CIEE to our 6th Annual SJMS Booster Bonanza on May 2, 2015 at Stonewall Jackson Middle School in Mechanicsville, Virginia. It would be a perfect time to come out and talk with Rebecca and the other representatives from CIEE about becoming a host family!
