Eleanor Schmitt (right), longtime volunteer with the Host Family Program, helps prepare lunch with a group of international students during a recent outing to Laumeier Sculpture Park.
By Neil Schoenherr
February 9, 2001
The University is the educational home to more than 1,100 international students from over 100 different nations. Many of these students come to St. Louis with very little firsthand knowledge of American customs and culture.
Eleanor Schmitt (right), longtime volunteer with the Host Family Program, helps prepare lunch with a group of international students during a recent outing to Laumeier Sculpture Park. |
Fortunately, two campus programs have been established to make international students feel more comfortable and to help acclimate them to the St. Louis area.
The first, the Host Family Program, is a cultural exchange program between the University's international students and local families who are interested in developing friendships and fur-thering cross-cultural awareness.
The other, the Speak English With Us Program, connects community volunteers with international students for informal conversation and cultural exchange.
Both programs have existed in some form at the University for nearly 30 years.
There are about 230 volunteer families involved at various levels with both programs, said Luisette Behmer, coordinator of the Host Family and Speak English With Us programs. Between 130 and 150 students apply each year to be involved in both programs, she said.
Host families range from single adults, to single parents, to families with and without children, to retirees. Host families do not provide living accommodations, but rather get together with their student about once a month for dinners, movies, trips to the theater, sporting events or sightseeing.
Each volunteer-student pair in the Speak English With Us Program meets once a week or so for about an hour at a mutually agreeable time and place. No special skills or training are required, just the ability to converse and exchange ideas.
In addition to one-on-one meetings, the two programs come together each semester for a structured gathering of all interested participants and volunteers. Recent events include Western Night and a trip to the Missouri Historical Society Museum.
Tom Evola, the University's associate director of student records, became involved with the Host Family Program in the late 1980s.
"We hosted a family from Taiwan," Evola said. "The husband was a graduate student in social work, arriving in the United States for the first time in his life, accompanied by his young wife and one child. They were on a fragile student budget, and consequently I volunteered to assist them in finding an affordable living arrangement during their time here."
The two families became friends, eating dinners together and having casual talks about culture, each learning a lot from the other.
Evola also participated in the program in 2000, welcoming an MBA student from Barcelona, Spain, into his home.
"We think the program is great," Evola said. "International students really appreciate our involvement if only for one day a month. We think it was especially beneficial for our teen-age children. Every time one talks and listens to a person from another culture, another hanger is formed on which ideas can be placed. And this I value."
But it's not only the host families that value the program. Students gain a great deal as well.
Shenquan Duan, a Chinese chemistry graduate student in Arts & Sciences, said he very much enjoyed participating in the Host Family Program and spending time with Carl M. Rovainen, Ph.D., professor of cell biology and physiology in the School of Medicine, and his wife, Leslie.
"My host family experience has been wonderful," Duan said. "Dr. and Mrs. Rovainen are very nice people, and they helped us a lot in adjusting to the new environment.
"Carl is a good musician. We were able to listen to his band. Leslie is a good quilt-maker, so we visited some beautiful quilt exhibits that she recommended. We also went hiking and canoeing. We really learned a lot."
Behmer said the programs have proved very rewarding for both students and volunteers.
"Many of our volunteers have traveled abroad. They know what it feels like to be a stranger in a strange land," Behmer said. "The bonds formed between students and host families are so tight that many keep in touch and visit each other after leaving Washington University. Many of our people end up being friends for life."
For more information on either program, contact the Office of International Students and Scholars at 935-5910.
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