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Schools

Healdsburg Families Host Education First Homestay Program Students

120 students from Russian, Norway, Sweden, France and Spain spent nearly four weeks with Sonoma County families while attending classes.

A total of 120 excited, eager and slightly shy European students arrived in Sonoma County on June 23 to spend nearly four weeks with host families to learn about America -- specifically California -- as well as study American English.

The Program

The students from Russia, Norway, Sweden, Spain and France spent part of their summer vacations attending classes at Sonoma Academy, a venue contracted by Education First Educational Homestay Programs, the largest private educational institution in the world.

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Their stay included classroom sessions, area outings with their fellow students, as well as with their host families, and visits to Los Angeles and San Francisco.

In addition, they learned about volunteerism, a particularly American cultural value, according to . The students in each area, too, participated in a service project. The five students with Healdsburg host families worked with LandPaths at Bayer Farm, while Santa Rosa students read and played with students attending the .

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“It’s a dream program,” said EF area manager Terry McPherson, “the location, the school, the students, absolutely the staff—it’s been a dream here.

“This is the nicest campus ever,” she continued. “The students love the feeling here. As she gestured to the open view over south Santa Rosa, her meaning was clear.

“They come, and we have welcome parties, tonight, we’ll have ‘thanking parties,’” continued McPherson. “The students are going to sing, play violin and perform for their host families.”

The students graduated early Monday afternoon, receiving English language certificates certifying their level of English proficiency. They were reminded during graduation ceremonies that the certificates are valuable educational documents.

To complete the EF mission to “break down barriers in language, geography, and culture,” the organization has partnered with the University of Cambridge with new approaches to language learning. They are also the “Official Supplier of Language Programs” for XXII Winter Olympics and the 2014 World Cup.

Students Speak

“I learned to be more independent,” said Annelene Sauro, 18, of Norway. “I haven’t been away from home without my parents. She admitted to being very homesick.

“It was very good, because I wanted to come to America,” said Sauro. “It looks the same [as in movies] but the people are different.”

Hmidy Yassine was the most outspoken of the students. The bright young man wasn’t shy about sharing his opinions.

“The program is useful for English, for openminded, too,” said Yassine. “I meet people from other countries and they have the same mind, too.

“The American people have a mix—a lot of food, big house, big car—it’s too much, in America,” said Yassine.

“In suburbs no bus or subway. Sixteen is very early for license. It’s 18 in France.”

He commented on his small host family. Healdsburg teacher, Elizabeth Vega was his host mother and she has one son. In France, Yassine shares his home with six siblings.

A Host Family Speaks

“,” said local orthodontist Joyce Chang. “We’ve done exchange students—we’ve had five.

“We’re like addicts,” she said, then laughed.

Chang, husband, Bert Daniel and their two children, Juliet, 14, and Ethan, 10, enjoyed their student, Simon Larsson, from Sweden.

“We got the application — we wanted to know how much driving there would be,” continued Chang. “It was a deal changer. We found that EF ran a shuttle from the Exchange Bank every morning at 7:45. That made a big difference.

“We do it because it’s always been fun to see how other kids from other counties live,” Chang continued. “My daughter has done exchange, too.

“It makes us do a lot of fun stuff, too, we want to show him a good time, too, so it really motivates us to get out of the house,” said Chang.

Chang mentioned how careful Denyse Caven was in her placement of the students.

“Denyse works hard to place students with the right family,” she said. “They checked out the families well.”

For other families contemplating being a host, Chang has a tip, “It works best when your child is about the age of the exchange student.”

More Students Speak

Larsson laughed about his shirt matching his eyes, “Swedish blue eyes,” he said.

“It’s really weird,” said Larsson, “American is not like Sweden. Everything is a lot bigger and a lot hotter. Larsson gave a lot of thought to the questions posed.

“The host families are really good. Everyone’s happy—almost,” he said. “They don’t get paid for it [hosting] so they have to like it.

“The school works really good,” stated Larsson. “The first hour is English. We have different chapters—globalization, leadership.”

“We had a cultural lesson and learned about American and California, mostly,” Larsson said. “The teachers are really into it—they do it because they want to.”

Healdsburg hosted students included two 17-year-old girls from Barcelona, Spain, Aida Galceran and Irina Duet.

“It was great. It’s my first time with a host family,” said Galceran. “I would repeat it if I wasn’t turning 18.

“I’ve had a lot of friends with the Spanish guys [a long pause] and girls,” Galceran stated. “I held a lot of stereotypes before coming and some are true, some not.”

A highlight of her stay was the 4th of July fireworks in Healdsburg. She watched from the Fitch Mountain Campus.

However, she was quite clear that she didn’t like to rise early in the morning or the classroom part.

“There is a cultural difference with the time,” Galceran said. “Everyone eats at 12 here, in Barcelona we don’t eat until 2 or even 3 p.m.

“We eat a larger lunch, a smaller, later dinner,” she continued.

“It was really nice to meet people from Norway, Sweden and Russia…to know traditions,” Galceran said. “Many stereotypes have been broken during the trip.”

Irina Duet is a small, soft-spoken young woman.

“The best part is the host family,” she said. “It was really different to live on a ranch," said the city girl.

“I rode a horse for the first time,” she continued, beaming. “I always dreamed about California—I don’t know why—I’m going home with a good experience.”

She was clear, to Caven’s obvious delight, that she preferred San Francisco to Los Angeles.

“That’s a nice northern California girl!” Caven said.

“The food is different, the meals different,” Duet said, echoing Galceran’s words. “Here are morning people, in Spain are night people.”

Final Thoughts

“It’s a nice group of kids — good looking, well-behaved, they are a credit to their parents,” Caven said during the later graduation ceremonies.

Caven, too, was a host mother. Her family hosted Sasha, from Moscow, and Mikkel, a young Basque from Spain. She laughed about having five teenaged boys in the house. She has three adolescent sons in addition to the two hosted.  She admitted that Costco is her favorite place to shop for food.

Caven’s son, Dante Mazzanti will go to Barcelona in mid-September through January, also as an exchange student.

The EF students returned home yesterday, July 19.

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