Open Your Doors and Hearts!

Save to Favorites

Hosting a student is an exciting and rewarding experience. When you choose to be an ICES Volunteer Host Family and welcome a foreign exchange student into your home, you will have the chance to establish a wonderful life-long friendship, while making a difference in a student's life.

Our host families learn first-hand about a foreign country from the perspective of an exchange student who has grown up there. They share in the evolving process of bringing the world closer through cross-cultural sharing and friendship. Most of all, they gain a new family member for a lifetime.

ICES students have their own spending money, cover their own personal expenses, and have full health insurance. Volunteer host families are asked to provide the student with meals and room and board during his or her stay in America. Although not a large sum of money, the Department of State does appreciate your dedication to international exchange. Host families can claim $50 per month tax deduction for each month they host in the following tax year.

ICES Host Families are the backbone of student exchange. So much of our success is dependent on the environment created for our students by these very special host families.