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Dear parents of Chinese language students,



John Flower, our Director of
Chinese Studies, is currently looking for host families for our three exchange
students next year.  Any family can host, but it's always a particulary nice fit
when one of the children in the family is learning Chinese.  If you are
interested in an in-depth cultural experience for the whole family, and an
opportunity for your child to practice Chinese outside of class, please consider
hosting a student next year.  I've pasted John's announcement below; please
contact him with any questions.



Best wishes,



Lea
Ekeberg





Sidwell Friends School is very fortunate to have three
exchange programs that bring students from our sister schools in Beijing,
Shanghai, and Ramallah to live and study with us for the school year. The
students stay with host families from the Sidwell community, without whom the
exchanges would not be possible.

We need
families to host students beginning in September 2011: the 11th grade girl from
Beijing, Shuo Zhang (Carol), the 11th grade girl from Shanghai, Xiaoye Jiang,
and the 10th grade girl from Ramallah Friends, Ranim Amra.

If you have
any interest, we will do our best to accommodate your family’s schedule. We hope
to find families from the Upper School who could each host for one semester or
even for the whole year, but we welcome interest from families with students in
Middle School, and from families who would prefer to host for shorter periods,
whether two-three months or just an occasional weekend.

The
exchange with the Number 2 High School attached to Beijing Normal University and
the high school attached to Fudan University is a longstanding program going
back over 25 years, and a key component of Chinese Studies at Sidwell. The
program with Ramallah is now in its fifth year of Friends School-to-Friends
School exchange. These programs are vital components of Sidwell’s global
outreach and they deeply enrich the diversity and educational environment of our
community. The relationship with the host family is always the most lasting
experience for the international students, and families find the hosting
experience to be rewarding. It is important to remember that none of the
exchanges would be possible without the generosity of host families in our
community. With the increasing pressures placed on family time and the
increasingly hectic pace of life, it has become more and more difficult to find
families willing and able to host, but the programs will not be able to continue
without host families. If you are in a position to host an international
student, please consider this opportunity to make an exceptional contribution to
our community—we will be very grateful!

Please
contact John Flower, Director of Chinese Studies and Global Programs, flowerj@sidwell.edu (202) 537-8181, for more
information.