6/4/2008 - Clarksville family surrogates for exchange students
By Mindy Campbell/The Leaf-Chronicle
While Barbara Wills has only two biological daughters, she has many more sons and daughters across the world who call her Mom.
Barbara, along with her husband, Stanley, has hosted more than 10 foreign exchange students over the years. These students have come from all over the world and have stayed for different amounts of time, but they have always been accepted into the Wills family with open arms.
And when the time comes for the students to return to their home country, they often take a piece of Barbara’s heart with them. She has kept in touch with many of her students and remains especially close with some.
Recently, she and her husband traveled to Europe to see the sights and to visit with two of her “children.”
“It was really great to see our ‘son’ and ‘daughter’,” Barbara said. “It is wonderful to see how grown-up they are and how much more mature and responsible they are now. I think as they get older, they get more appreciative of the experience.”
The Clarksville resident is a volunteer for the local chapter of AFS Intercultural Programs, a nonprofit high school student exchange organization. Barbara serves as the public relations chair for the area chapter known as the Miss Tennky team, which includes Mississippi, Tennessee and southern Kentucky.
Barbara began her experience with AFS many years ago when her family lived in Maryland. She hosted two girls for just a week. When Barbara moved to the Nashville area and began working in the school system in the 1980s, she helped revitalize the local program.
Two years ago, Barbara retired and moved to Clarksville, but she remains an outspoken advocate and volunteer with AFS.
“After 43 years in education, you would think I wouldn’t want students in my house,” she said. “I really enjoy young people, though, and learn a lot from them.”
Portrait of a Host Family
AFS began after young volunteer ambulance drivers returned home from World War I and II with a social conscience. They formed AFS (formerly the American Field Service) to promote understanding and peace through international student exchange.
Today, more than 11,000 students from more than 50 countries participate in the AFS program. During an exchange to the U.S., foreign students study in local high schools and live with host families.
Locally, AFS will sponsor 31 students this year beginning in August. While they have placed many of the students, AFS still needs 17 host families, said Jenny Myers, AFS hosting coordinator.
Barbara said in the past AFS wanted a stereotypical American family to host students. Today that picture is much different.
“In the past, they wanted a Norman Rockwell painting — two parents and two kids,” Barbara said. “Now any configuration works: retired, single adults, one-parent family.”
The only thing host families must possess, Barbara and Myers said, is a desire to share their home and family with the student.
One such Clarksville family, Vivian and Wally Kaaihue, have opened their heart and home to many foreign students. The couple has hosted eight students in 20 years.
While the Kaaihues have no biological children, they now have several surrogates.
Wally has enjoyed most of the experiences.
“The students are pretty mature for their age,” he said. “They give up a year of their life, education and family to move in with total strangers. Our society should go abroad more often.”
Wally encourages anyone to become a host family.
“It adds more to your life,” he said.
It is also one that can last a lifetime, said Myers, who just received a picture of her Argentinean exchange student’s new baby. “I am a host grandmother,” she said.
Cultural Exchange
Barbara and her family have had a lot of experience in foreign cultures.
Barbara’s husband Stanley worked for the U.S. State Department for many years. His work brought the family to Africa, where they lived for many years including stints in Senegal, Mali and Burundi. While in Africa, Barbara found jobs working in education.
“You never knew what was going to happen,” Barbara said of her time there. “It was always an adventure.”
The time was well spent and helped prepare her family for their hosting jobs.
“Those years helped quite well,” she said. “I know what it is like to immediately perform, and speak in another language.”
While she wasn’t a student in a foreign country, she still has an understanding of what the students are going through.
“I don’t have the student experience, but I understand the struggle,” she said. “I had similar experiences when I had to struggle to keep up with another language during business meetings.”
Barbara said there are a few things host families can do to make the student more comfortable in their home.
One tip, Barbara said, is to treat them like your own children.
When Barbara chastised her Russian exchange student about keeping the bathroom clean, Olga said it made her feel good.
“She told me she really felt like she belonged because I had fussed at her like I did my own girls,” Barbara said.
Stanley, who isn’t quite so effusive about the opportunity, has enjoyed the experience.
“If you like to travel, then it will be an experience you can enjoy,” he said.
He has grown close to several students including Remy, a French exchange student. He and Barbara attended Remy’s wedding a few years ago and visited him on their recent trip to Europe.
Some of his favorite memories of his time with the exchange students are of doing normal tasks with his students including breaking horses, repairing roofs and golfing.
“If everyone was like Barbara, then the entire U.S. would be foreigners,” Stanley joked.
This article was originally published here.
Copyright 2008, The Leaf-Chronicle, reprinted with permission. For more about Clarksville and Montgomery County, Tenn., please visit www.theleafchronicle.com.
 |
Printer Friendly |
