Local families asked to host international students

To the Editor:

Foreign high school students are scheduled to arrive soon for academic semester and year program homestays, and the sponsoring organization urgently needs a few more local host families. The students are anxiously awaiting news of their new families, but the local response this year has not been what the organization had expected.

Ashburnham-Westminster and Naragansett Regional High Schools still have spaces open and are willing to enroll the students, but time is limited. This is the final push for the chance of a lifetime for these young ambassadors to fulfill the dream of a lifetime.

The students are all between the ages of 15-and-18years-old, 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. currently has programs to match almost every family's needs, 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 $50.00 per month charitable contribution deduction on their itemized tax returns for each month they host a sponsored student.

For the upcoming programs, P.I.E. has students from Germany, the former Soviet Union, Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil, Macedonia, Hungary, Korea, Mexico, Australia, Yugoslavia, Poland, 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 nonprofit 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.

I encourage families to contact the program immediately, as it will allow the proper time for the students and hosts to get to know one another before they actually meet for the first time.

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 1-800-6311818. The agency also has travel/study program opportunities available for American high school students as well as possibilities for community volunteers to assist and work with area host families, students and schools.

John M. Doty, Executive Director

Pacific Intercultural Exchange