When did student exchange programs in the US start and when did they ever became popular?

6 comments

1. My aunt hosted a German high school student in the early-mid 1970’s so it was going on then.

   I have no idea how popular they are but we had one or two students in my grade (couple hundred people) who were exchange students.

2. It was already pretty big when we hosted a German exchange student in mid to late 80s. I remember going to a big gathering with other host families and it was larger than I thought. He was a few years older than me, and we still talk fairly often.

3. no idea when it started. But my high school had an exchange program with Dutch students. They would come stay for the school year with a family at my school.

   There was this ceremony we had where seniors passed a candle to juniors with the idea that they were passing on their leadership.

   You paired off with a senior who you respected. I procrastinated and my close friends already paired up by the time I asked. I ended up paired with a Dutch guy named Nils. He seemed like a nice dude but I didn’t know him well. He went out of his way to hang out with me once we got paired for this kind of silly ceremony.

   One of the nicest guys I’ve met. He took the candle passing ceremony super seriously.

   When my turn came as a senior I made sure to take a real effort to pick someone and actually spend some time with them. They are to this day a close family friend. I can thank Nils for that.

4. I personally don’t think they’re that popular in the US and I would never do it. Seems much more common in Europe.

5. Probably right after ww2

6. I graduated HS in ’83. They were a big deal in our school. The exchange students were treated like celebrities (one from Finland played on our hockey team). My best friend went to Luxembourg for a year and ended up marrying a student who came to our school from there.