The Norman Transcript

Local news

Discussion

July 21, 2007

Host families needed

For The Transcript

Foreign high school students are scheduled to arrive soon for academic semester and year homestay programs, and the sponsoring organization needs a few more local host families.

According to Pacific Intercultural Exchange (P.I.E.) Executive Director John Doty, the students are all between the ages of 15 and 18 years, are English-speaking, have their own spending money, carry accident and health insurance, and are anxious to share their cultural experiences with their new American families. P.I.E. has programs ranging in length from a semester to a full academic year, where the students attend local high schools.

P.I.E. area representatives match students with host families by finding common interests and lifestyles through an informal in-home meeting. Prospective host families are able to review student applications and select the perfect match.

As there are no "typical" host families, P.I.E. can fit a student into just about any situation, whether it is a single parent, a childless couple, a retired couple or a large family.

Families who host for P.I.E. are also eligible to claim a $50 per month charitable contribution deduction on their itemized tax returns for each month they host a sponsored student, organizers said.

For the upcoming programs, P.I.E. has students from Germany, the former Soviet Union, Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil, Japan, Hungary, Korea, Mexico, Australia, Yugoslavia, China, and many other countries. P.I.E. is also participating in two special government-funded programs to bring scholarship students from the Newly Independent States of the former Soviet Union as well as predominantly Islamic countries such as Yemen, Syria, Jordan, Morocco, Kuwait, Iraq and Qatar to the United States.

P.I.E. is a non-profit educational organization that has sponsored more than 25,000 students from 45 countries since its founding in 1975. The organization is designated by the United States Department of State and is listed by the Council on Standards for International Educational Travel (CSIET), certifying that the organization complies with the standards set forth in CSIET's Standards for International Educational Travel Programs.

Cleveland County area families interested in learning more about student exchange or arranging for a meeting with a community representative may call P.I.E., toll-free, at (866) 546-1402.

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