Thursday, March 5, 2009

World Peace - You Can Do Your Part

Program for Academic Exchange
Every Beauty Queen states to the interviewer when asked what she wants to accomplish, "world peace". Even if you are not a beauty queen, you and your family can contribute to world peace by hosting a high school student from another country in your home.

Linda Servis is the local Community Coordinator for PAX (Program for Academic Exchange). PAX is a small, vibrant band of dedicated individuals who work together all over the world to identify students that would love to come to the U.S. and study for a year. They work with partner organizations in many countries to bring these students to the U.S. and are fully accredited by the State Department which oversees their activities.

Their mission is to promote international peace, friendship and understanding through cross cultural exchange and education.

And they also promote a whole lot of fun and great experiences for the student and the whole family. Relationships formed this way last a lifetime and provide a lifetime of joy and friendship not to mention a good place to stay when you want to travel.

Host families can be any kind of family-- single parents, empty nesters, whatever. The student doesn't need to have a room of his or her own, just a quiet place to study—they are used to sharing rooms with their brothers and sisters.

The great news is that the San Ramon Valley School District is excited to take these students into their school for either the junior or senior year. So Linda Servis needs host families to speak to about this program. She will come to your home and tell you all about the program and at this time of the year, you could have your choice of nationalities—Indian, Australian, Chinese, Italian, whomever you would feel is most compatible with your home life. She does request that the host family speak English predominantly in the home as one of the goals of the students is to polish their English—they are all English speaking (often times tri lingual as well).

So call Linda if you are interested in hosting or even interested in finding out more about the Program for Academic Exchange. Her number is 925-934-1750.

No comments: