Consider hosting an exchange student

MILFORD - The 4-H wants you to bring the world into your home this summer by hosting a Japanese student. This summer Japanese students and a chaperone will come to Pennsylvania as part of the 4-H Japanese Exchange Program. Each student will be here for a one-month, home-stay experience from July 22 to Aug. 18. These young people are excited to learn about your family’s customs and culture, your values, foods, clothes and lifestyles. But, mostly they want to make friends with other young people and try communicating in English. If you would like to learn more about another culture, 4-H wants you to consider being a host family. Students, range in age from 12 to 17 years old and are members of the Japanese Lex, Labo or Utrek Organizations. Since 1972 over 35,000 Japanese youths have stayed with families in North America. The Japanese delegates will be matched with a host sibling of the same gender, similar age, and interests. Exchange students have their own insurance and spending money, so being a good host does not require expensive sight seeing or even a separate bedroom. Host family applications and additional information about this or other 4-H opportunities in Eastern Pennsylvania are available by contacting Diane Boucher Appel at Penn State Cooperative Extension in Pike County at 514 Broad Street, Milford, PA 18337 or you may call 570-296-3400. Or if you are interested in the program, you may call Christi Buker at 717-766-1636 directly.