To help you better understand how we get students to:
Home Bases
All our students are placed in what we call a home base. A home base consists of 8 to 10 students but at times we include 12 people. There is a coordinator at each home base. This person is responsible for finding wonderful families for each student and for planning a summer program.
Student USA Arrival Dates
The best way for a summer program to work is to have the students at each home base to arrive on the same flight. All the the families from each home base are at the airport to greet the students. They all feel like a team so it is wonderful to have the families from each home base together at the airport
Program
Each home base provides a program for the students. It really starts the minute the student gets off the plane. All the families from each home base are together and cheering for the students. Usually the next day, there is an orientation to the summer and a big welcome dinner. That is why it is important for each home base to arrive together. This will help you explain to students who have friends on different flights how we arrange the flights and why friends could possibly not fly together. One thing about the program is that we only have 4 required activities. We do provide other things to do BUT the American parents decide what they will do. Some parents have other activities planned.
Student Placements
We try to place students in home bases with great care. Some of our principles are:
1. With very few exceptions, students return to the same families. (With the family’s permission)
2. Relatives of students usually go to the same home base as their relative (sister/cousin) but not necessarily the same family
3. If a friend was at formerly at a home base, we try to place that student at the same home base
4. If there is some compelling (to compel is the verb) reason to place a student at a specific home base (for example the student is allergic to dogs or the student has very specific food needs) we look for a family who can take care of those needs and the student is placed in that home base.
5. We try NOT to put friends together because it makes it more difficult for them to speak English. When some kids only talk to each other in Spanish or Basque, it gives permission for all students to not speak in English.
This does three things:
1. It wastes their parents’ money. The parents are sending students for an English fluency experience
2. It frustrates the Americans who are trying to honor the wishes of the Basque parents
3. It makes the American teens who are a part of our program feel left out.