SEA: Student Exchange Alliance

INTERNATIONAL YOUTH EXCHANGE

Experience the Quality of the International Youth Exchange of SEA!

INTERNATIONAL YOUTH EXCHANGE Reasons to EXPERIENCE HOSTING

• Personal interest for a great new “Cultural Experience” due to benefits for their own children   
• Widen perceptive to learn different cultures though an educational and cultural experience due to personal connection with someone from another country 
• HELP the world community experience the true America   
• Loved their personal “Hosting Experience” as a family and/or exchange student

INTERNATIONAL YOUTH EXCHANGE “Hosting Experience” is Positive and Beneficial

• Family learning experience provided benefits not only culturally but also socially
• Family gained a new perspective on its own country and culture through its exchange student’s perceptions
• Hosting was especially beneficial in terms of enhancing its own family setting, such as making new extended families, and having more interaction and mutual respect as a family.
• Family’s received cultural experiences due to interaction and exposure to other cultures and customs

INTERNATIONAL YOUTH EXCHANGE Qualifications of a Host Family

Host family basic qualifications must be meet in order to host an exchange student. It is vitally important to understand these qualifications and ensure that a host family can meet them before they begin hosting.

• English spoken in the home as the primary language
• Exchange student must have their own bed, may share a bedroom with a host sibling of the same sex and no more than 5 years difference between them
• All members of the family should agree to host an exchange student
• Families must not consume excessive amounts of alcohol, or tolerate the abuse of alcohol or drugs among their children or other young people
• Families must express a religious tolerance and a willingness to cooperate with the student in the practice of his or her own beliefs
• Families must be aware of the responsibilities and prepared to make the commitment of hosting
• Families should be financially stable and solvent
• Single men and women may qualify as a “host family” if a student and natural family accept this type of placement
• Family members must be in good health, without physical or mental disabilities that might interfere with the hosting responsibilities

QUALITY IS WHAT MAKES SEA A LEADER IN INTERNATIONAL YOUTH EXCHANGE

All INTERNATIONAL YOUTH EXCHANGE Programs are not alike, the U.S. Department of State and CSIET (Council on Standards for International Educational Travel) mission of  identifying QUALITY and reputable INTERNATIONAL YOUTH EXCHANGE programs, to promote INTERNATIONAL YOUTH EXCHANGE, and to provide leadership and support to the exchange and education communities so that youth are provided with meaningful and safe international youth exchange experiences.

SEA ALLIANCE MEMBER PROGRAMS ARE ACCREDITED AND CERTIFIED

All the SEA Alliance Member Programs has been evaluated and found to comply with CSIET and DOS Standards.
It is intended to help HOST FAMILIES and YOUTH identify reputable programs.

INTERNATIONAL YOUTH EXCHANGES

Most Important Factors of Exchange Are:

• Quality of Students
• Quality of Host Families
• Quality of Representatives
• Quality of Programming

When INTERNATIONAL YOUTH EXCHANGE students are placed in the correct timeline; you have a bonding time for the host family and their new son/daughter by:

• Sharing of house rules
• Learn about each others expectations
• Interesting facts about the school and community
• Able to really get to know each other
• Many other little things important to a great experience

The INTERNATIONAL YOUTH EXCHANGE programs that are in Alliance with SEA are monitored and verified to be placing quality students, in quality homes, by quality representatives, with quality programming and by complying with the guidelines of CSIET and the DOS.

The INTERNATIONAL YOUTH EXCHANGE programs that SEA represents are a limited number of highly selected programs, therefore it is able to commit and dedicate itself to the superior quality all INTERNATIONAL YOUTH EXCHANGE families have a right to when sending their children to a host family in the US.

SEA, Student Exchange Alliance International Youth Exchange stands for Quality of Student, Host Family, Representatives and Programming.