Walks of Life
Homes away from home
4/30/2025The decision to host a foreign exchange student can come with a myriad of worries. Will the student want to eat the food we make? Will everyone get along? How will we keep the student entertained? Will he or she get homesick? However, many of those who decide to give it a try find their fears to be unfounded as they gain an appreciation of the student’s homeland and culture, see their own country from a new perspective and build bonds that endure. Local residents share their stories about the adventure of being a host family.
Carrying on the tradition
Jessica Gibbons-Booton’s first experience with foreign exchange students was her senior year, when her family hosted Olga from Belarus. She says she still keeps in touch with Olga and talks with her regularly. Because she enjoys traveling and learning about new cultures, Jessica, now a mom of two, figured it would be a fun way for her kids to learn about other cultures.She says the best part about hosting exchange students is learning about yourself as a host, including new foods, new traditions, and meeting new families. Their full-year exchange student was from Kyrgyzstan and is named Sanzhar. “His mom was a teacher, and she and I talked a lot — and still do,” Jessica shares. Additionally, the Booton family has enjoyed celebrating new holidays. Another of their exchange students, Amima from Pakistan, made a great meal, and they had a big celebration for Eid. Jessica’s family feels another highlight of hosting is introducing their students to the beautiful places around Winterset and the Midwest in general. Source: Winterset Living, April 2025; by Rachel Harrington
Like father, like son
Wouter and Jessica Hertzberger live in Amsterdam, but they have always considered Indianola their second home. As their children were growing up, Jessica would bring the kids for an extended stay. Their son and daughter both attended Irving year-round school in their elementary years. They currently have a home here and are renovating it with plans to retire in Indianola. When their son, Max, finished high school in the Netherlands, he decided to take a gap year before University.Max had a great experience with both of his host families, staying with the Pipers first semester and the Barnes family the second half of the year. Max has been friends with the Pipers’ son, Logan, as well as Dawn Barnes’ daughter, Shae, from his time going to elementary school here, so it was an easy decision for both families to welcome Max into their homes.“We learned so much from him… especially that we Americans tend to hurry through one thing to get to the next,” Dawn Barnes says. “Max taught us to slow down and enjoy the simple moments. I hope he knows how much he was loved in our home and that he always has another family in this world that will welcome him with open arms.” Source: Indianola Living, April 2025; by Becky Kolosik IRIS brings students
The Iowa Resource for International Service office located in West Des Moines is headed by Executive Director Del Christensen. He has also hosted more than a dozen students at his home throughout his 30 years at IRIS.Christensen says students benefit from learning different cultures. “This might be the only chance for you to meet someone from Tanzania, Morocco or Indonesia. It opens up the eyes of people living here in Iowa.”Christensen coordinates with locating Iowa families. IRIS is one of the only exchange programs that places in Iowa exclusively. “We want to keep the spirit of Iowa nice and be welcoming to them,” Christensen says.One important aspect of the student program is the opportunity to do volunteer work and bring ideas back to their home country. “We had one student from Iraq who did a canoe float and helped clean up the Des Moines River. When he got back to his home in Baghdad, he cleaned up a river there. He sent us a video. He was so proud of what he had done,” Christensen explains. “It’s a rewarding experience and more than you can imagine by making them a part of the family. It’s life changing for both the student and family,” he says.Source: Jordan Creek Living, April 2025; by Jackie Wilson
All around the world
Janet and Dave Harwood are no strangers to hosting foreign exchange students. Since 2014, they have hosted 12 students. They hosted their first student when their daughter, Sonya, now 27, was a junior in high school. Sonya wanted to go abroad herself, but the Harwoods weren’t comfortable with that, so hosting was the compromise. “There are a lot of organizations to choose from, and what attracted us to AFS was it had students from 80 different countries,” Janet says. “We weren’t limited to certain kids. It was a whole range of students to pick from. I was blown away.”Their first student was a girl from Italy. Since then, they have also hosted kids from Switzerland, Paraguay, Norway, Dominican Republic, Spain, Slovakia, Serbia, Germany, Japan and, this year, Thailand and the Czech Republic. Sometimes they have hosted two students at a time for a semester or a whole year, depending on the student’s needs. ♦Source: Grimes Living, April 2025
