Te Awamutu Courier - October 9th, 2014

Thursday, October 9, 2014
Te Awamutu Courier
Host families sought
for SEANZ students
3
Choose from a delicious
meal platter with tasty beef
and chicken options
• A range of sushi prepared daily
• Bento for meat lovers and
vegetarians or noodles plus
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• Catering and Party platters
available
Fairview Special
TC091014SP03A
AUSSIE GETAWAY: Exchange student Greta Hoffmann (15) from Germany (right) with Te Awamutu
youngsters Jordan and Yasmine Wilcox on a visit to a Sydney wildlife park in March.Greta’s host family won
a trip to Australia and she paid for her own flight to join in their adventure.
BY GRANT JOHNSTON
Host families are needed for 10
students coming to Te Awamutu
area in January through Student
Exchange Australia New Zealand.
The SEANZ programme sees
students from all around the
world spend 3-10 months on their
Antipodean adventure.
Rebecca Wilcox, local coordinator, says SEANZ has been
in New Zealand for just a few
years and currently has seven
students in the Hamilton/Te Awamutu/Cambridge area.
“We are always looking for
new families to host some of our
fabulous students,” Ms Wilcox
told the Courier.
“Students come from places
like Germany, Denmark, France
Italy, USA, Brazil, and Japan, just
to name a few countries. We also
have students going from New
Zealand on exchange.
“Families that host do so on a
voluntary basis — they don’t get
paid for having the students —
but in saying that the students fit
into the family and it’s like
adopting another child,” says Mrs
Wilcox, whose family hosts
students. The student teaches the
family about their country while
learning about ours. The students
come to go to school here and Te
Awamutu College is fabulous
about having students attend
there.”
Ms Wilcox works alongside
another co-ordinator from Auckland to organise group outings for
the students and their host families.
“We had an outing to Waitomo
Caves and the Otorohanga Kiwi
House, and we had a picnic/
shared lunch which was fabulous.
I have taken some of the students
that I am hosting and coordinating to Hobbiton as some of
our students are big Lord of the
Rings’ fans.”
Three of the students coming at
the end of January will be here for
10 months and the other seven are
coming for five.
The students hail from USA,
Germany, Japan, Canada, France,
Austria, and Argentina.
“We have a wonderful lady,
Maureen (Jopson), in Nelson who
helps find host families and helps
the families fill in the required
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Caring for your eyes
Did you know?
TC091014SP03B
VICTOR NORRMAN getting ‘into character’ on an exchange student
group visit to Hobbiton.
paperwork that goes with hosting,
such as a family profile — to tell
the student about the family, how
many in the family and ages jobs
etc — about the home, and school
and a police check is done as
well.”
See
the
website
studentexchange.org.nz/host-astudent for information about
hosting and SEANZ. Host families
are asked to treat the student as
their own child.
“If your children have jobs
around the house the student can
help with these as well. You can
take them on family trips and
holidays.”
Students staying in the Te
Awamutu area currently are
Leonie from Germany, she has
been here since the end of January this year and is nearing the
end of her 10 month stay,
Sebastian who is also from
Germany and Victor from
Denmark, who both arrived in
July for 10 months.
A new host family is being
sought for Victor, as he is currently with a ‘welcome family’.
This is a family who agreed to
host him so he could depart on
time as he didn’t have a permanent family to stay with and might
have had his departure date
pushed back. “Victor is a very
happy, cheerful 16-year-old with
great sense of humour who is
willing to give anything a go.”
Ms Wilcox says when they
leave, most of the students say
‘Why can’t I stay longer, I love it
here’. “As far as I know most of
them, if not all, plan to come back
at some stage to visit their host
family and see more of our beautiful country.”
An information evening about
SEANZ is being held at St John
Ambulance station in Palmer
Street on Tuesday, October 28 at
7pm. For more details phone
Rebecca Wilcox on 0276713105.
Your eyes are most exposed to harmful sunlight
between 8am and 10am and again from
3pm to 5pm.
It’s in your face when
you’re out there in the
ﬁelds or driving to and
from work.
Come in and check our
range of sunglasses, so
you can protect your eyes.
Prescription Sunglasses
Packages available
from $299
Available at:
335 Alexandra St, Te Awamutu
T: 871 7741 F: 871 8555
E: [email protected]

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