| Q: |
Do I have to pay any fees to USH? |
| A: |
No. On the contrary, USH will pay YOU for hosting students. |
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| Q: |
What is expected from the host family? |
| A: |
• A private bedroom furnished with a bed, desk, and closet/drawer space
• A quiet study environment
• Daily dinner with the family if family provides room with meals service
• Limited local transportation
• Open communication, encouragement and sound advice
• Treatment as a member of the family (responsible for cleaning own room,
rules, privileges)
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| Q: |
What is expected of students? |
| A: |
• Be a responsible and caring member of the family
• Attend school regularly and show consistent effort
• Share his/her culture and customs with hosts and the community
• Participate fully in family and school life
• Open communication and commitment to the program
• Clean up after him or herself
• Keep his/her bedroom neat
• Responsible for preparing his/her own breakfast
• Notify hosts if they will be away for the weekend, won't be home for dinner, etc.
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| Q: |
How does a family apply to host? |
| A: |
You simply need to fill out our Host Application by clicking here. Once
we receive your basic information, we will contact you with further details about the
program, students available in your area and to schedule a visit to meet you. Once we meet with you, we will
add you to our database and you will have access to track and choose your own students online!
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| Q: |
How will our student get around? |
| A: |
Students generally use public transportation to
get to places in California. Most cities that we place
students in have reliable and good public transportation
so students most often take the bus to and from school.
Thus, you may expect that your student will get around
independently most often. However, there may be a few
instances in which they may ask you for a ride and
it will be between you and the student to determine
a time that is convenient for you to be of help.
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| Q: |
Will our student speak good English? |
| A: |
Most of our students are international students
who come to the US to learn English and enroll in Intensive
English courses. Given this, they come with a very
basic knowledge of the English language and thus are
not fluent. In fact, most students speak little English
but this does vary from student to student and there
are some students (especially those who enroll in community
colleges instead of in English courses) who speak relatively
good English. Thus, your student's English level will
depend on which course they enroll in and will vary
from student to student.
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| Q: |
Do I have to go to the airport to pick up my student? |
| A: |
No, USH never asks its hosts to offer airport pick-up/drop-off services to its students. Instead, USH arranges pick-up service for students who request it.
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| Q: |
How does it work? |
| A: |
First, you will have to submit your application
to USH to become a host. Once we receive your application,
we will contact you for further information and to
schedule an appointment to meet with you. After we
have met with you and you are approved (we must screen
all homes before placing students), we will add you
to our online database and you will be able to choose
your own students to host. It's easy, flexible, and
convenient to become a USH student host!
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| Q: |
How do I get paid? |
| A: |
Please see our Payment Information page. |
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| Q: |
Does the student pay me directly? |
| A: |
No, all monetary transactions are to be handled between USH and the student alone. Per our agreement with our international agents, students must make all payments to the USH office only. Students are not allowed to perform any monetary transactions with the host. Should a host fail to adhere to this policy, we will inactivate him/her.
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| Q: |
How can I update my profile? |
| A: |
Once you are a host, you will receive an email with
log-in information for you to be able to log-in to
your account via our host website. Once you log-in,
you will have real-time access to the students available
for you, checks that have been sent if you already
have a student, and also to your file so that you can
update any personal information.
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| Q: |
How can I change my password? |
| A: |
You will be able to change your password via our
online database. Once you log-in to your account, you
will be able to edit your account settings, including
your password.
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| Q: |
Do I pick my own student? |
| A: |
Yes, you will be able to view and choose available
students via our online database. You can check which
students are available, where they are from, their
age, which school they will attend, etc. and then choose
the best student for you. If you do not have online
access, you may call our office and our friendly USH
Team will tell you which students are available and
help you choose a student. You will never be forced
to take a student that you do not wish to have, and
you can choose to only have students when you are available.
All in all, it's a very flexible program with no obligation
involved!
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| Q: |
How soon can I host a student? |
| A: |
Once you submit your host application, you will receive an email confirming we received it. You will also receive a call to schedule a quick visit to meet you and see the bedroom you have available. Once you are approved and ready to receive a student, you may receive a student right away (if students are available in your area at that time) or we may need to wait to receive student applications for your area. Basically, you might be eligible to host a student a week or two after you submit your application, but when you will actually receive a student will depend on when the classes in your area begin. In the Los Angeles area, for example, we work with schools that have classes beginning every month so you will most likely receive a student quickly. In other areas, the colleges function on a semester basis so you may receive a student at the beginning of the new semester.
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| Q: |
Do I have to drive my student around? |
| A: |
No, as explained in the "How will my student get
around?" question, our students generally use public
transportation to get to and from school as well as
other places they may need to go to. However, they
may sometimes ask you for a ride and it will be between
you and the student to determine a convenient time
for you to help them.
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| Q: |
Can we host more than one student? |
| A: |
If you have more than one private bedroom available,
you may indeed be able to host more than one student
at a time. As long as you have private bedrooms and
we have students available for your area, we will place
more than one student with you. We cannot guarantee
that we will always have more than one student available
for you, but when we do, we will be glad to place more
than one with you.
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| Q: |
What are my responsibilities as a host parent? |
| A: |
We do not ask our host families to become legal
guardians for our international students. All we ask
of our host families is to care for the students as
they would their own children. This means that the
families are expected to provide a clean living environment,
good nourishment and caring. The students will provide
their own spending money for expenses incurred outside
of the home and most schools require them to have their
own health insurance.
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| Q: |
I don't have an extra bedroom available in my own home, but would
like to refer a friend. How can I do so? |
| A: |
That is very simple and we'd love to have your referral!
We will even pay you $50 for the first student we place
with the person you refer as a "thank you" for your
help. Please visit our Refer-A-Friend page for more
information about this.
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