Host Families Urgently Needed for Urbandale International Students

If you're part of a middle-class family in Urbandale who wouldn't mind a bit of international culture, consider opening your doors to it.

Two Urbandale families are needed to house a pair of international students from Brazil and China. The students have spent months preparing to study at Urbandale High School, and their last step is finding a good place to live.

Brenda Auxier-Mailey recently took over the charge of finding homes for next year's travelers. Mailey is the international coordinator for Educatius International, a company that works with parents and students to place them in schools around the world.

If interested, contact Brenda Auxier-Mailey at (515) 681-4327, or bjamemail@gmail.com.

Mailey said the process to get a student to Urbandale is complicated.

"We have to start working on this six months ahead of time," Mailey said. "Kids are working on it before we even know about them wanting to come."

Educatius provides host families with a monthly sum of $400 per student to help with food and transportation costs.

They also provide round-the-clock support for parents who have questions about how to treat a new student.

"Some people believe that when you host, you've got to take students to all these places," Mailey said. "And I beg people not to do that when they first get the students. Those students are exhausted, emotionally and mentally. They've been up all night to get here. You need to let them sleep for a couple days."

Mailey is more than willing to provide round-the-clock support for parents with questions — her family has hosted ten foreign exchange students from Japan, Russia, Ukraine, Germany and Spain.

"We hosted when my children were young, and it was the most fantastic experience for the kids," Mailey said. One of their students in turn hosted her daughter overseas several years later.

Mailey said the best way to host a student is to treat them like they are part of the family.

"One of the mistakes we made was when my husband's mom actually died when Julia (their foreign-exchange student) was staying with us," Mailey said. "(My mother-in-law) was in Ohio, so we had made arrangements with another family to take Julia. She'd been with us a few months, and Julia was really offended. She came to us and she said, 'I'm your family member, I want to experience this.'"

This year, Educatius International will be sending four students to Urbandale. Mailey said that as the organization develops a stronger presence in the community, they hope to eventually bring ten.

Have you hosted a foreign exchange student? Tell us what the experience was like in the comments!