When we were first approached about being a host family for an AFS student, I thought perhaps my husband might be less than thrilled. Surprisingly, we were both open to the idea. Of course, we wanted all the information we could get our hands on. We read up on the organization and talked to several people about their experiences with the program. Soon enough we found ourselves filling out paperwork and getting more excited about the prospect of having Carina in our home for a year.

Most of the time when we told people we were going to have an exchange student live with us for a year, their response was as if I had just told them I’d been diagnosed with some disease whose name is too hard to pronounce. To read the entire article click here. - Karen Minor of Little Rock

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My family has hosted six AFS exchange students, four boys and two girls. We chose to have the boys first because we have three sons of our own and that worked out great for them. After the two older sons were grown and out on own their own we decided to have the daughter we never had - that's when Silvia came to become a part of our family. She is truly still like a daughter to this day. She and I email each other almost daily.

They all were so unique, loving and caring in there own way. We have so many special memories of each one. You truly become to love them as your own children, as long as they are treated as such. We have had great experiences with AFS students through the years. - Marva Huff of Little Rock

Pictured above are Marva and Silvia taken when Marva and her husband James were visiting Silvia in Costa Rica

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"If we only knew…” is a phrase AFS has used in recent years to market how incredible it is to open your home to an exceptional young person from around the world. It certainly applied to us – if we only knew how wonderful it was going to be to host that first time, we might have done it much sooner. We welcomed a fabulous Turkish young woman, Pinar Ayhan, into our home for the 2000-01 school year and it changed our lives forever! Not only did we gain a wonderful daughter with whom we stay in close touch, but the experience literally brought the world into our home. It cultivated in us a much deeper understanding of, and much richer appreciation for, the cultures and peoples of our world. It deepened our resolve to learn and travel more, as well as to host again, which we did in 2005-06 – our wonderful German daughter Teresa (Resi) Moennich. Our hosting experiences cultivated in our children the desire to study abroad: our daughter Lauren spent a year in Belgium with AFS the year we hosted Resi; and our son David plans continue to major in international studies in college. Ann and Rick Owen, Lauren and David Jacobs of Little Rock

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“In the beginning of our exchange, I was unsure whether I could keep a positive attitude about it for a whole year, but quickly came to realize that there was no way this was not going to be a positive experience. I have learned so much, not only about Norway and another culture, but also about myself and who I am. I feel changed ever since Erling came into our home and I couldn’t ask for a greater experience.” - Hannah Roher (host sister) of Little Rock