Foreign exchange students call the area home

Every year, families and high schools in our area open their doors and welcome young men and women from around the world who desire to experience the typical life of the American teenager and learn in American schools. This school year, three students are attending Westlake, Bay and Avon Lake high schools as part of the ASSE International Student Exchange Program (ASSE) that places students from foreign countries with families in the U.S.

At Bay High School, Fanny Bonduelle from Suresnes, France, is in her junior year and is studying American literature, American government, chemistry and, her favorite, American fast foods/gourmet. Fanny has earned a role in Bay High’s spring musical “Beauty and the Beast,” snowboards with the ski club, takes dance lessons at the Beck Center for the Arts in Lakewood and attends dances with her local host family where salsa, swing and other dance styles are taught informally. 

Fanny met one of her new ASSE friends on the airplane coming from France to Cleveland. Chloe, an ASSE student attending Avon Lake High School, is a sophomore participating in various school activities including ski club. A third ASSE student attends Westlake High School.

ASSE, a worldwide student exchange program, places foreign students, ages 15-18, with local host families in the Bay/Westlake/Rocky River area (with school cooperation) and helps high school students in our area to find foreign exchange opportunities around the globe.  

ASSE International (formerly American Scandinavian Student Exchange) is a non-profit, tax-exempt, public benefit organization. Originally founded by the Swedish National Department of Education, ASSE is officially designated as an “Exchange Visitor Program” by the U.S. Department of State and cooperates with the Canadian Provincial Ministries of Education and the New Zealand Ministry of Education. The ASSE program currently connects U.S. families/students with 60 countries around the world.

For the next high school year, ASSE is seeking local families willing to host boys and girls, ages 15-18, from Europe, Asia, North and South America, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa for the school year. These personable and academically-select students speak English well, are bright, curious and anxious to learn about the USA and Northeast Ohio by living as part of a family, attending a high school, and sharing their own culture and language with their adopted host family. 

Each exchange student arrives from their home country shortly before school begins and returns home at the end of the school year. Each ASSE student is fully insured, has his/her own personal spending money, and expects to have his/her share of household responsibilities. In exchange, the host family promises to include the student in normal family activities and lifestyles.   

Please contact Jeanette McGovern, ASSE Area Representative (and host mother to Fanny Bonduelle), at 440-667-0180 for more information about hosting an ASSE student and/or participating in an ASSE overseas foreign exchange program. More information is also available at 800-333-3802 or on the internet at www.asse.com.