Local representative now available

Ken Johnston

The Rainy River area has a new student exchange representative.
Crystal Lindal of Rainy River has agreed to help the World Heritage Student Exchange program both find host families and assist any students interested in going on an exchange.
At present she has profiles of two german girls available to come to Canada on an exchange and knows that there are 20 more students that will need host families starting September of this year.
To be a host family a home needs only to provide room and board for the student. Each student brings their own spending money and are fully insured.
Lindal said that she saw an advertisement for an area representative in this area and thought it was interesting. However the idea just sat in the back of her mind until this year when she saw the ad again and decided to call World Heritage Student Exchange to see what it was all about.
While she never participated in a student exchange herself, Lindal said she has always found it to be interesting noting, “friends of mine participated.”
Anyone interested in hosting a student can call her at work, 852-1729 or home at 852-1777. The profiles of the two German girls are available now and she expects to have some for students from Brazil, France and Japan in the near future.
Potential host families have to fill out an application. The forms which Lindal has.
While the start for the next exchange is not until September, National World Heritage Coordinator Angela Grant said that people should apply as soon as possible.
“We will take host families right up to mid-September, but prefer to have things in place sooner rather than later,” said Grant.
Students from 15-18 can also apply through Lindal to participate in exchanges around the world. However, Grant said that she finds that most North Americans are not prepared to sacrifice a year of their education to participate.
“Their schooling overseas will not count towards their Canadian diploma and they will have to repeat the year,” said Grant.
However, if there are people willing to do that they can pick up the forms from Lindal. Grant said the personal cost per exchange student ranges from $4,000-$10,000. “There are scholarships available for students with average marks 90% or higher.
More information on the program can be obtained by calling Lindal or by logging onto the internet at www.world-heritage.org.