Donna Ford, local coordinator for the Academic Year in America high school exchange program, is presently interviewing families in this part of Missouri to host a foreign exchange student.

The cross-cultural learning program places teenagers from Europe, Asia and Latin America with American families for a semester or school year.

The program also gives American families the chance to learn about a foreign culture. Exchange students bring their holiday customs, their native language and the special dishes of the homelands into their American homes.

"It's like a trip abroad without ever leaving home," Ford said. "These interesting young ambassadors soon win the hearts of their hosts. They arrive as strangers and become `sons' and `daughters' in their American families."

Next year's participants, chosen from hundreds of applicants, will arrive in Missouri in August. They all speak English, are covered by full medical insurance, and have their own spending money.

Host families receive a travel scholarship, worth up to $800 off the cost of an American Institute for Foreign Study travel/study abroad program.

Families interested in choosing a Spanish, German or Brazilian student to host for the 92-93 school year should contact Ford at 887-3860 to set up an interview, or call Regional Director Christine Hoque at 1-800-322-4678.