Bill Sanborn and his family recently traveled to Thailand for the wedding of his hosted daughter. He shares here about the experience.

We're providing biographies of AFS exchange students so that you can envision what it would be like to share your day-to-day life with a new family member. Below are examples of students who will be participating with AFS.

Once you begin the hosting interest form, we will connect you with a local volunteer to discuss specific students in your area.

Lars from Denmark "My music is important to me," explains Lars. He has been playing the guitar for the past year and practices everyday in his hometown in Greenland, where he lives with his younger brother and parents. Opinionated and honest, Lars has a very loving and respectful relationship with his family and they love to go sailing together. His father is a carpenter and his mother is a teacher. Lars is a self confident person with a great sense of humor and a creative mind, and says that believing in himself makes him unique. He hopes to use these skills and his interest in mathematics to become an engineer someday.

Kumi from Japan Kumi is interested in cultural studies and likes learning about Japanese culture, and she hopes to work in international relations in the future. Like her father (who she lives with along with her mother and grandmother), Kumi is also interested in traditional Japanese culture. Her father practices a form of archery called Kyudo. Kumi performs traditional Japanese tea ceremonies and enjoys reading novels by Japanese authors. She is also on her school's student council. Kumi gets along well with others and has tons of friends because of her outgoing, fun- loving, and social personality, as described by her friends. Her teachers say she is "curious about everything" and "spares no effort" to do well in school.