Student Opportunities

Here are some opportunities for your students outside of the classroom.

Study Abroad

Council on International Educational Exchange
Host an International Student ﾖ Become a CIEE Host Family! Families with or without children, as well as responsible single adults can become volunteer host families. We offer hosting opportunities for the either the semester or academic year program. Additionally, families may choose to welcome a student to the community by hosting for a short-term period (approx. 3 weeks)

Program of Academic Exchange
PAX (Program of Academic Exchange) is looking for host families to host high school students participating in two State Department sponsored programs – Partnerships for Learning Youth Exchange and Study program (YES) and Future Leaders Exchange Program (FLEX). Most YES students come here from countries with thelarge Muslim populations and FLEX students from Russia and former Soviet republics. The families can host a student for the full school year or be a ﾓwelcomeﾔ family for 8-10 weeks until the student is moved to a permanent home!

Youth for Understanding
Youth For Understanding (YFU) is one of the oldest, largest and most respected international exchange organizations for high school study abroad. YFU USA is seeking families who are willing to share their home with a teenager from another country. Invite an exchange student to become a part of your family and discover what you can gain! To explore hosting a YFU exchange student please call 1-866.493.8872 or apply online.

AYUSA
At AYUSA, we believe that the greatest way to learn the true heart and soul of a culture is not through a tour of its monuments, but by opening your heart and home to a young person from a distant land. When you choose to host an AYUSA international exchange student, prepare to embark upon a unique and exciting journey. Along with a suitcase and passport, these amazing young people bravely carry their heritage and values across the world with the hope of living, learning, and sharing with an American host family.

Academic Year in America
Academic Year in America (AYA) is one of the largest and most respected high school/homestay programs in the United States. AYA is sponsored by the American Institute For Foreign Study (AIFS) Foundation, a not-for-profit organization founded in 1967 with the assistance of the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy. AYA is a proud administrator of several U.S. State Department grants: the FLEX program, which welcomes students from Eurasia, the former Soviet Union states, the newly implemented YES program, which welcomes students to the U.S. from predominantly Muslim countries, and the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange program (CBYX), which awards scholarships to US high school students to study and live in Germany for 12 months.

World Heritage
World Heritage is seeking families, couples or single parents (with or without children at home) who are adventurous, fun-loving, responsible, and most of all, caring. Recruiting for World Heritage host families takes place in the spring and early summer months to ensure enough time for exchanging letters with your student before his or her arrival. Once your student arrives, your World Heritage Area Representative will be available during the entire stay to assist your student in adjusting to your family and his or her new school, community and culture.Here are some programs outside of the classroom of which your students can take advantage.

Global Summer Programs & Camps

Legacy International’s Global Youth Village
Legacy offers 3-week-long summer programs for young people from around the world. Program combines global issues, leadership, cultural sharing, community building, arts and conflict resolution.

Global Young Leaders Conference
Unique leadership development program that brings together young people from around the world to build critical leadership skills in the global context.

Children’s International Summer Villages
An independent, non-political volunteer organization promoting peace education and cross-cultural friendship.

Seeds of Peace
Non-profit organization that helps teenagers from regions of conflict learn the skills of making peace. Based at a camp in rural Maine.

Interlocken at Windsor Mountain, NH
Since 1961, has pioneered international opportunities for young people everywhere. Summer programs; community service; adventure travel.

SIT’s Experiment in International Living
Summer programs for high school students in over 25 countries around the world.

Concordia Language Villages
World-language and culture-education program, whose mission is to prepare young people for responsible citizenship in our global community. Offers sessions in 13 languages. Year-round programs are also available for adults and elderhostelers.

Orbis Institute
Non-profit, educational leadership organization working to introduce American youth to their peers around the world. By bringing students from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds together to engage in dialogue, Orbis aims to create an environment in which all participants can discover their unique leadership abilities.

Washington Workshops
National High School Student Leadership Seminars in Washington, D.C. Includes the one-week Diplomacy and Global Affairs seminar, where students will learn firsthand from national policy makers and international agency officials of America’s outreach into questions of foreign policy, diplomatic initiatives, and the global economy.

Challenge:TOMORROW
Leads students ages 12-16 through a 21-day summer program that provides cultural perspective, language instruction, leadership skill development, team-building and problem solving skills, and sustainable relationships development opportunities.

One World Foundation
Through international and domestic service projects, workshops and leadership development programs, One World Foundation seeks to equip younger generations with the tools necessary to affect social change on both domestic and international levels.

Student Projects in Development

Operation Day’s Work, USA
A USAID project that allows American students to contribute to an overseas project. Each individual school becomes a member of ODW; all of the members select one overseas project to fund each year. ODW helps with the planning and fundraising, to create a nation-wide, humanitarian, student-run effort.

Global Citizen Corps
A program which gives young leaders in the U.S. the training and resources they need to raise awareness and take action in the fight against poverty.

Global Youth Connect
A youth-led network supporting & training front-line youth human rights activists, and encouraging new activism.

Travel / Exchange Opportunities for Students

Council on Standards for International Educational Travel(CSIET)
Non-profit organization that establishes standards for international educational youth exchange programs, and evaluates and monitors those programs that are deemed to be in compliance with the CSIET standards.

AFS-USA
AFS Intercultural Programs is a worldwide nonprofit organization that has been leading student exchange for more than 55 years. Each year, AFS-USA sends more than 1,500 exchange students ages 15-18 abroad for year, semester, and summer programs. In addition to selecting a country destination, students can consider concentrating on a special area of interest such as language study, community service, arts and culture, or the environment.

EFTours
More than 200 tours to destinations in the US and throughout the world. Travel programs are designed to bring lesson plans to life, to break down barriers of culture and language, and to instill in students and teachers a fresh global perspective.

Book Donations

Directory of Book Donations Program
This site has links to numerous book donation organizations, plus a handbook on essential components of successful book donation projects.

Books for Africa.org
This organization collects, sorts, ships and distributes books to children in Africa. Books donated by publishers, schools, libraries, individuals and organizations are sorted and packed by volunteers who carefully choose books that are age and subject appropriate. Contributions cover the cost of shipping containers full of enough books for a whole class to use.

Book Aid International
Works in 18 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Palestine, providing over half a million books and journals each year to libraries, hospitals, refugee camps and schools. Works with library partners to develop their pivotal role in the community.

Books for Asia
By providing books and other educational materials to schools, libraries, reading rooms, communities, and disadvantaged and rural populations, Books for Asia helps educators and communities address important development goals, such as enhancing English language capacity, improving vocational and research skills, developing small business expertise, advancing the knowledge of professionals in critical areas such as medicine, engineering, and public administration, and teaching children and young adults how to read.

African Library Project
U.S. schools and other organizations run book drives for gently used, unwanted books to meet the specific needs of a school in sub-Saharan Africa. In Africa, the African Library Project partners with Peace Corps Volunteers and African nationals who provide the space, shelving, staffing, training and community support for a library.

Think Twice Before You Donate
This article, which originally appeared in the July-August 2001 issue of the Global TeachNet newsletter, addresses a number of important points to consider when making plans to donate books internationally.

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