Host families needed for Colombian students

A search is on for Prince George families interested in hosting high school students from Colombia.

About 30 students ages 12 to 17 are expected to arrive in Prince George for stays of either one month or five months to hone their skills in English through a special program between School District 57 and a group of schools in Colombia.

"The students come with an English background so they're able to walk off the plane and communicate with their host family," said Carolyn Arlt, program manager at Shecana International Schools Ltd. in Prince George which is co-ordinating the stays.

The first group is schedule to arrive on Sept. 2 for a five-month stay, the second on Sept. 17 for a month and the third in October for a month. The five-month group is all boys and the two one-month groups are a mix of boys and girls.

Host families are expected to provide a safe and welcoming environment for the student and to including them in their daily activities, said Arlt. Families receive $400 per month to host the students, but the payoff is bigger than that.

"Hosting is a great way to add some cultural spice to every day life," Arlt said. "Exposing your children to different language and customs is a great way to broaden their horizons."

Families are welcome to host more than one student but there is a catch.

"We're not able to place two students with the same language background in the same home because the point is to come and speak English," Arlt said.

"If we placed two Colombian students in the same home, chances are they would speak Spanish all the time. If we have a family that wants to host two students at a time, what we would do is pair up one Colombian student with an exchange student from our regular program which is a cultural stay for an entire year.

"We do have a few students [in the regular program] that are needing host students and I believe they are students from Germany and possibly Switzerland."

Shecana has operated in Prince George for 16 years and some families have participated for as long as 10 years, Arlt said.

Shecana will provide support for the families and students, including a pre-arrival orientation for the host families and a post-arrival orientation for students and families. Shecana will be arranging extracurricular activities for the students at least once a month.

Interested families can contact Shecana's placement coordinator Kerri Ellison at [email protected] or 250-962-9792.