American Homestay Network is looking for families in our neighborhood to serve as hosts for an upcoming tour of Chinese students in early 2014.
As part of the “Be American” tour, 20 Chinese teenagers aged 14-19 will be visiting Seattle for three weeks from January 18th through February 7th. These students will be studying English and learning about American culture at Seattle Pacific University. A key component of the program is the chance to live with American families and experience “American life” firsthand via homestay.
Host families are encouraged to include the students in their daily life to enrich the experience for both student and hosts. Through homestay, hosts (and their children, friends, etc.) learn firsthand about the world and its different cultures, while sharing the true values of Americans with visiting students
Different than high school student exchange programs where the homestay hosts are volunteers, a homestay with AHN offers compensation to hosts that provide accommodations for independent, high school or college-age students. The payment should cover any costs of hosting the student(s).
For the Be American tour, AHN host families will receive between $375-$500 per student to provide a shared room (two students) or a private room (one student) and meals (self-serve breakfast and lunch, and a prepared dinner with your family) for the students.
Host families must be within 50 minutes by public transportation to Seattle Pacific University’s campus on the north end of Seattle’s Queen Anne neighborhood.AHN’s professional approach to homestay makes hosting easy for local families, providing student/host matching technology, pre-arrival online training for students and hosts, 24×7 professionally managed support line, and local representatives to address any on-site host or students needs.
AHN also has longer hosting opportunities (which pay $660-$775 per month) with students from many different countries, so this can be a test run for any families looking for a unique cultural experience. More information about what it takes to be a host and how to apply can be found at homestayhosting.com.
