A group of up to 30 students from our sister school in Ochsenhausen, Germany, will be arriving in Medford Sunday, May 16 and will be staying until Wednesday, June 2.   During that time, the group will attend regular classes at St. Mary's, participate in several organized field trips (two of which are on weekends), and take part in your family's daily life. Your host student will shadow your St. Mary’s student for about half of his or her classes and then attend the remainder of the classes independently. 

The German students are from the 10th and 11th grade and have had English for at least six years, so their English is excellent and language is typically not an issue.  They may need several days to get acclimated to your accent and intonation, but then they usually have very few problems speaking and understanding.  You are not expected to significantly adapt your life to your host student, beyond taking time to talk, eat, and socialize with him or her as you would with any other guest.  Because they take part in numerous field trips, you will have at least one day each weekend for your family to relax and regroup.

As far as your obligations are concerned, you would be expected to provide a comfortable bedroom to your host student (it can be a shared room), as well as transportation to and from school, and sack lunches if that is what you send your student to school with.  If your student buys lunch, the German students have been informed that they need to bring money to purchase their own lunches so you wouldn't be under any obligation to pay for their lunch meals.  We also host a welcome barbecue for the group, and it is an expectation that all the families will attend with their host student. 

If after reading this information you are still interested in hosting, please email me at dmccreedy@smschool.us or call me at 541-779-4585 so I can send you additional information on the exchange.  Thank you so much for your interest in this important St. Mary's program and for your warm hospitality!