Every year, about 65 upper level high school students from all over the world head to homes in Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota through the SHARE! program. Five students are presently available for homes in Minnesota, and the program is seeking five students in the state to go abroad.
Dee Petersen, regional administrator for SHARE! Cedar Lakes Region, said each student arrives with their own airline ticket, insurance and spending money.
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Each family has the power to make a final decision on a selection of students and determine which one is most suitable. The time of year determines the number of students available.
"We try to match by interest rather than nationality," Petersen said. "So we would not put a hockey player, say, into a family that plays the violin."
As the program works with states in the Midwest, it also gives students from tropical countries a chance to see snow. One morning, Petersen received a call from a girl in Brazil who witnessed snowfall for the first time.
"She asked if she could walk on it," Peterson said. "These are the types of things we would never think of."
Many host families repeatedly offer their homes to students after their first experience, and new ones continue to open up. Recently, Petersen received a letter from a Mankato family that expressed excitement for their future students.
"It will probably be the neatest experience I've had so far in my life," the letter said.
The program can also provide a bond between the two families. Sometimes, one family will visit the other to get a taste of what their child experienced for a semester or year.
"It completes the circle when the American families have connected not only with the students, but the biological parents," Petersen said. "They understand a lot more who they're hosting and who they have invited into their homes."
For additional information on the Educational Resource Development Trust/SHARE! program, Dee Petersen can be reached at 1-800-314-3738.
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