Westminster’s exchange students visiting from Segorbe, Spain, are the target of many questions about life in their country as soon as they arrive in the U.S. Taken from class to class to converse with Spanish students, they are bombarded with questions about whether they have Chick-fil-a in Spain or not and what they love about the United States so far.
However, during this time, the students who have graciously volunteered to host these exchange students in their own homes haven’t had much of a chance to talk about what this experience is like for them. What is it like hosting an exchange student?
Spanish exchange students visited Westminster for two weeks in March. While here, they each stayed with a host family who have a student in the Middle School. They engaged in fun activities all around Atlanta and accompanied their hosts to all their classes at school, showing them what life in the United States was like while also giving their host students a new perspective on different cultures.
Head of Exchange Program Zeke Hoyos says that the process of matching host families to exchange students is extensive. “We work closely with our partner admin teams in each school and connect students and families based on a myriad of information such as introduction videos, host family questionnaires, and teacher/admin feedback.” These informed pairings lead to deep friendships forming between visiting students and hosts. This is part of the reason the exchange program is so successful.
8th Grader Catherine Wellford hosted an exchange student this spring, and she says that though housing her student was a lot of fun for her and her family, the language barrier between them provided a challenge. “The hardest thing is communicating sometimes. Neither of us is fluent in Spanish and English.” While Wellford acknowledges this struggle, she loved having an exchange student stay with her and says that it wasn’t too difficult to incorporate her student into daily life. “A typical day is normal, I go to all my classes and do my homework and sports. The only thing that I need to remember is to get [my student] to where she needs to be, if she needs to go anywhere specific.”
8th Grader Andrew Morgens agrees, saying that having an exchange student didn’t impact his daily routine too much. “A typical day with my exchange student is very similar to a normal day . . . during school hours he will normally shadow me at school and then I will drop him off and he does something fun for the rest of the school day. Then, we go to a restaurant for dinner to show them what the food here is like.”
One of the reasons Westminster’s exchange program does so well is that Middle Schoolers who host exchange students later have the opportunity to go to Spain themselves. There, they will enjoy other fun activities and learn more about Spanish culture. To bring the experience full-circle, these students will stay with the very same students they hosted in their own homes.
Wellford says she’s just as excited to go to Spain as she was to host an exchange student. “I love how they come here and we go to Spain.”
Overall, the exchange program has been a highlight of the year and a great experience for hosts and visiting students alike. One host parent agrees: “Hosting turned a global program into a personal connection. It was rewarding to see our family and our student build a genuine bond that went way beyond just sharing a house.”