ISE program searching for host families

International Student Exchange (ISE) is searching for host families in Jeff Davis Parish to take on foreign exchange students for the upcoming school year.

The new school year in the parish starts in August, so there is only a little over a one month left to find hosts for 10 students from countries including Brazil, Thailand, Spain and Kyrgyzstan.

Host families are only required to provide shelter and feed the students but the students cover most other expenses.

Tasha Shuff, a Jeff Davis Parish-area representative for ISE who lives in Lake Arthur, said her time as a host with her first student, Tiffany from Taiwan, was a life-changing experience for both of them. She feels other host families can have the same experience.

“They get to learn about our culture and, in turn, we get to learn about theirs,” she said. “They get to experience another family dynamic and you create a lifelong relationship with them. I still keep in touch with Tiffany.”

Shuff said area representatives typically start searching for host families in January, but now that school is about to start again, there isn’t much time to find families for the remaining 10.

“The application process takes a couple of days but there’s so much information that you have to put because we do check the family thoroughly,” she said. “This is still a stranger coming into your home. The whole thing has to be approved in our office and then we have to get with the school board, too.”

Shuff said she has previously helped to place four students since becoming a representative. She said there is not one particular family situation for students, as representatives work with prospective families to find the best matches.

“There’s no one family dynamic. We have married and engaged couples and couples with none or several children. If someone out there doesn’t think they can qualify, call us and we’ll discuss it,” she said. “If you’re thinking about hosting, we want you to know it’s not random. We try to find host families with similar hobbies and interests, and we try to match them up after they look through all of the options.”

Shuff said this part of Louisiana would provide a unique experience for exchange students.

“With Jeff Davis Parish, there’s so much hospitality because that’s the way we were brought up around here,” she said. “It’s great exposure to our culture with cookouts and crawfish and other good foods.”

Shuff said she has been talking and FaceTiming with her next foreign exchange student, Sofia from Ecuador, showing and telling her about Lake Arthur in particular.

“She’s coming from a big city, so she loves the idea of the lake,” Shuff said. “We have a camper and she’s ready to go camping. She is very amazed by our big backyard, and the school is only a mile down the road, where she usually has to travel 30 miles to get to school.”

For more information on ISE, contact Tasha Shuff at

(337) 368 9299.