L’ANSE, Mich. (WLUC) – The Upper Peninsula needs families to house exchange students.
The International Cultural Exchange Services of the Upper Peninsula said it’s seeing a decrease in host families.
Over at L’anse Area Schools, there are currently three exchange students. Fabian Schuldt is from Germany, Bjorn Skat-Rordam is from Denmark and Bebe Molina is from Spain, all three are juniors.
They said the classes have been simple, but living in the Upper Peninsula has been a unique experience.
“Everybody’s much more friendly,” Schuldt said. “You just come into a place and it’s like ‘Hey what’s up man?’ and you don’t know that guy. It’s pretty cool.”
“There’s a lot of different places you can go, especially in the U.P.,” Skat-Rordam said. “You can go to Marquette if you’re a city person, if you like hunting or doing farming stuff like Fabian, you can come here.”
“Appreciating nature, the distances, looking at the lake, it’s much different,” Molina said. “Appreciating what we have, and the nature that is really beautiful and up here is really nice.”
International Cultural Exchange Services Senior District Representative Lauren Lachen said there are usually 16 to 20 U.P. families who sign up to host students like Fabian, Bjorn and Bebe.
But now, she said it’s dropped to herself and one other family for this fall.
“I think there’s a common misconception for families that they have to put a lot of money into hosting an exchange student,” Lachen said. “That’s definitely not something we want to happen and it’s not really true, but it can be a little intimidating when that’s the expectation.”
While the students get the benefit of visiting a new place, Lachen said families also get to welcome a new member into their home. As Bjorn’s host mom, she’s seen this firsthand.
“For my little boys, getting to have a big brother for the first time, has just been a really good experience,” Lachen said. “One of them told me the other day, ‘I’m going to be so sad when Bjorn goes home I think I might just die Mom.’ I mean, he’s five so he exaggerates a little but they love having him.”
To learn more about becoming a host family, visit the International Cultural Exchange Services’ Facebook page.
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