4-H foreign exchange connects cultures, youth around the world

For more than five decades, young people across the United States and around the world have bypassed traditional tourist itineraries to experience authentic, everyday life in foreign cultures through 4-H.

Founded in 1972, States' 4-H International Exchange has connected tens of thousands of young around the globe through immersive, family-based cultural exchange. In Arizona, the program has welcomed students from Japan and Korea and helped U.S. youth spend time in Japan, Argentina, Korea, Taiwan, Costa Rica, Norway and Finland, said Alexandria Maurer, the Arizona 4-H international exchange coordinator. 

“We want to expand and welcome more, but we have to see the numbers and participation increase before we can,” Maurer said.

The program is a form of diplomacy, said Todd Kesner, Extension’s associate director for 4-H Youth Development.

"International 4-H exchange programs introduce young people to peers of a different cultural who quickly learn they share many more similarities than differences. The experience expands thinking beyond a hometown, or even country, to a global citizenship mindset for both the host and the visitor," Kesner said.

State's 4-H Exchange includes short-term summer exchanges and full academic year programs.

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It emphasizes deep host-family integration, placing American and international students into everyday domestic life to cultivate mutual respect, self-reliance, leadership and cross-cultural communication skills.

Through short-term summer programs, American volunteer families welcome international youth ages 12 to 18 for three to four weeks of deep cultural sharing. Host families, who do not require prior 4-H membership or affiliation to participate, are matched with visiting teenagers based on host sibling age and gender.

The inbound program in Arizona dates to 1985, when families hosted 18 youth. Since then, the state has hosted 659 students. The outbound program has been less consistent, with 25 outbound youth since 1996 and none since 2015 until last year, Maurer said.

The academic year program enables international high school youth to live with American host families through an entire school year from August through June. Visiting youth attend local public high schools, participate in school athletics and extracurricular clubs, and fully integrate into household routines.

Host families are screened to ensure safety of the delegates, Maurer said.

“We don’t just place with anyone. We screen heavily for not only 4-H guidelines and youth safety, but also for a good match, simply because a host family and a delegate having a good experience on both sides is our priority,” Maurer said.

Youth who travel in the program are not just left on their own in foreign countries either, Maurer said.

“All of our delegations travel with adult chaperones with them as part of a group, and then when they arrive, the adult chaperones are placed in host families, so they can be there as local support  if anything were to happen,” she said.

The program does require a level of independence from the youth though. For example, most American kids are not used to the  independence that Japan allows them, and they will need to be responsible participants because of this, Maurer said.

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“We do a lot of screening and preparation at the state level and at the national level, which includes interviews and application essays, to know whether this student is not only going to represent us well, but can handle situations with maturity as well,” she said.

Maurer has seen the impact of the program in her own son and others. She has seen how it changed youth she chaperoned in Japan, she said.

“I still keep in touch with them and watch their lives grow and change, and many of them are doing things that they didn't expect to be doing at this point because of that experience,” she said.

Kimberly Anderson was a chaperone this summer in Argentina. Her role was to serve as a sort of backup plan. She had almost daily contact with the group, she said.

“Because we saw them all the time, they didn't need to be as reliant on their host families,” she said.

Anderson’s daughter Emme spent a month in Japan, where the host families really take on more of a role. Her time there was spent almost entirely with her host family, who spoke some English, she said. 

The experience didn’t come without some small glitches. Emme isn’t a huge fan of fish, and identifying it on menus proved to be a problem. She also felt a little homesick at first.

“That went away pretty fast,” she said.

The program opens up a world of possibility for youth who take part, Kesner said.

"Throughout history, great explosions in knowledge occurred when multiple cultures met and learned from one another. In 4-H exchange participants, we’ve seen growth in confidence, communication skills and leadership ability along with an openness to knew ideas for the benefit of 4-H clubs and projects," he said.

Applications are currently open for youth and families interested in the program for 2027. Contact Alexandria Maurer at almaurer@arizona.edu for more information, or see the States’ 4-H website to apply today.