Host families needed for summer program participants

Volunteer families are needed to host 53 top high school scholars from Europe and the United States who will attend a program at Purdue this summer.

The students will participate in the Benjamin Franklin Transatlantic Fellowship (BFTF). Fellows will stay in a residence hall at the beginning of the institute, but on July 9-18, they will stay with Lafayette/West Lafayette area families.

On weekdays, institute participants will take classes on campus or participate in community service, social and cultural events. Host families are responsible for transporting students to campus by 8:30 a.m. and picking them up around 4 p.m.

On weekends, host families can take students to Tippecanoe County events and sites and, in the case of students from Europe, introduce them to family life in America.

BFTF is a U.S. State Department program designed to build relations among future leaders. At Purdue, it will be hosted by the College of Education’s Department of Curriculum and Instruction.

During BFTF, students will discuss important issues in global and transatlantic politics, mass media, global citizenship and community service. Participants are 16 to 18 years old and went through a rigorous selection process. All speak English.

"Successful, great, amazing, wonderful, unique … I cannot even find the appropriate word to describe my stay in the USA, which turned out to be one of the best experiences in my whole life,” said former participant Maciej Szybiak of Poland. “I regard the whole trip as the best thing that has ever happened to me.”

Interested families should contact program homestay coordinators Sarah Powley at powleys@comcast.net or Jeremy Bloyd at jjbloyd@gmail.com or fill out the online host family application.