Families needed to host Japanese students
HAYDEN - Dockside's gooey desserts aren't just famous in North Idaho - they're pretty big in Japan, too.
Compass USA coordinator Kim Bojorquez revealed that when Japanese students come to Coeur d'Alene and experience the larger-than-life treats, they tell their friends all about it when they return home.
"The students talk to each other," Bojorquez said Thursday. "They're like, 'We want that big ice cream.'"
Bojorquez, of Hayden, is in search of 22 local families to host 20 Japanese students and two Japanese teachers for two weeks this summer. The students, ages 15-16, will arrive July 20 and depart Aug. 4.
This year, Anthem Friends Church in Hayden will serve as the academic center for the students rather than the previous center in the Liberty Lake/Otis Orchards area. Bojorquez said the move will make it easier for North Idaho families to host because the drive time will be much shorter.
"I thought it would be a good opportunity for people in our area to host," she said.
This will be the fourth year the Bojorquez family will host a Japanese student through the International Education and Training Services, Inc. (INETS) program.
"They are a little shy because they don't like to make mistakes, so they're a little reserved, and then some of them are really outgoing, and if they make a mistake, they make a mistake," Bojorquez said. "It would be just like us going over to a foreign country; you don't want to say the wrong thing."
Bojorquez explained that hosting the Japanese students opens a world of opportunities, including scholarship opportunities for American teenagers of the host families who may want to stay abroad in Japan through the Compass USA program. Kim's daughter, Jordyn, spent 12 days with a host family in Japan last summer and loved the experience. Kim said she and Jordyn both observed Japanese teens were extremely respectful to others, and they have made long-lasting relationships with the students and their families.
"It is an eye-opener to see how different our kids are from the Japanese students," Kim said. "You have friends on other continents that you wouldn't have had if you hadn't opened your doors to them. It's been really neat. My kids send pictures, we send care packages sometimes."
While the Japanese students are in Idaho, they will attend Anthem for schooling five days a week. They'll work on their English, which they have been studying for a few years, and listen to speakers from the community. The students will spend a day at Silverwood and a day in Spokane as well as spend evenings and weekends with their host families, going camping or doing whatever the host families plan. Host families have the option to be financially reimbursed when the students leave, but Kim said the experience is worth much more than money. If families choose, they can take that money and put it in the scholarship fund that supports local students who go to Japan through Compass.
To host, families need to be able to provide the student with three meals a day and a bed in a room with a window. Kim said the students can share a room as long as it's with someone of the same sex and they must have their own beds. The beds can be bunk beds or even air mattresses. Anyone in the household 18 and older must pass a background check. Many varieties of families are welcome to apply and host families don't need to know Japanese. The final deadline to apply is May 29.
"It can be an older couple, young couples that don't have kids, families that have kids," Kim said. "Just somebody that's willing to open their homes and their hearts."
Hosts can also correspond with the students and their families via email before the students arrive so they can open a dialogue and get to know one another a bit beforehand, which helps put the students' parents at ease.
"They're sending their baby to a foreign place to people they don't know," Kim said. "It helps the parents feel a little more comfortable to know where their kid is going. And that way (hosts) can get an idea of what the student wants to do when they're here."
Kim said she is also looking for three local teachers, one who is ESL (English as a second language) certified, to work part-time at the academic center. Teachers will be compensated for their work, she said.
"I think it's a good experience for us to be able to see another culture firsthand," Kim said. "Maybe we can't go to that country, but you can let that country into your house."
Info: compassusa.kim@gmail.com