March 21, 2019 -- Several AFS students need host families for the 2019-20 school year. They are from Argentina, Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia, and other countries.

See AFS the student bios.

For over 60 years Heights High families have welcomed AFS students into their homes for a semester or school year. The students bring a different perspective and add to the life of their family, school, and community.

The hosting application process can start now and students will be placed with CH-UH families in August.

Host families can have young children, high school aged students or be empty nesters and can have one or two parents in the house.

For more information about hosting a student, contact Carla Bailey, [email protected].

Meet two Heights AFS host families:

The Shelton Family - Barbara and Obie
In August 2018, we became a first-time host family to Ola from Ghana and EJ from Kenya.  

The girls are seniors at Cleveland Heights High School and participate in many school activities and are straight A students.

As empty-nesters, we forgot what it was like to parent busy high school seniors and keep up with their activities. But the challenges are overshadowed by the interesting conversations about politics, free speech and discrimination in our country and in theirs.

 

 

They watch movies, learned how to make pancakes and recycle trash. We learned how to make ugali and plantain chips and listened to popular east and west African music.

The girls will leave soon and we are dreading their departure, but plan to visit both of them soon. Being an AFS host family has been an amazing and life-changing experience.

The McDonald Family - Becky and Tim 
In the fall of 2017, my husband Tim and our two children, aged two and four, welcomed Roberto from Italy into our home.

Roberto attended Heights High and stayed with us for the school year. We loved hosting Roberto!  He arrived on my son's 4th birthday, who bragged to his friends that he got an Italian brother for his birthday. 

In the short 10 months that he was in our home, he truly became part of our family.

 

After Roberto left in June, our family spent most of the summer in Italy, touring and also visiting Roberto. It was so good for all of us to reunite with our Italian son and meet his family. It was an experience that we will always remember and he will always be part of our family.