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Dimondale Family Welcomes YFU Exchange Student from Thailand

Posted at 11:29 AM, Jun 25, 2018
and last updated 2018-06-25 13:44:14-04

This August, Norma and Forrest Cumberworth of Dimondale, MI will welcome into their home Tidtanya, a 17-year-old international exchange student from Thailand. The Cumberworth’s were matched with Tidtanya, who will be attending Holt High School for the academic year through Youth For Understanding USA (YFU). Tidtanya will be the fourth exchange student welcomed into their home; they hosted Izumi from Japan and Viktoria from Germany in 2016, and Yingyin from China in 2017.

 “We started hosting when our daughter, Erin was a freshman in high school. Since she was an only child and also wanted to see the world, we brought the world to her. She also has learned that the kids from all around the world are in the same situation as she is, they feel the same and deal with the same problems, just in a different language. Tidtanya, has a lot in common with our daughter and that's how we think it's going to be a great match, she sounds happy and ready for her time in America.”                                    

Norma Cumberworth

Youth For Understanding (YFU), one of the world’s oldest, largest and most respected intercultural exchange programs, has been changing the way we see the world through their high school exchange programs since 1951. Each year, YFU places hundreds of international exchange students with caring host families across the U.S. and enrolls them in a local area school.

Hosting is all about sharing your version of the American lifestyle with an exchange student while also gaining a new global perspective, many memories and a new family member for life. Exchange students experience tremendous personal growth. At the same time, the impressions made by the students themselves will broaden perspectives of host families and ultimately ripple through schools and across entire communities.

More than 260,000 students and their host families have benefited from these shared cultural experiences. YFU thanks the Cumberworths for sharing our American customs and their family's unique traditions with this young person embarking on a life-changing experience.

 Visit www.yfuusa.org  [icm-tracking.meltwater.com]or call 1.800.TEENAGE to learn more about local opportunities to host, study abroad or volunteer with YFU.

Source: Press Release