What should I know about ERDT and SHARE!? Educational Resource Development Trust (ERDT) has over twenty years experience promoting cross-cultural exchange. Our SHARE! High School Exchange Program is well-respected in the exchange community (overseas agents, host families and coordinators) specifically for our personal approach to student exchange. We are a medium-sized organization—large enough to provide stability and variety but small enough to maintain a personal touch. Being as selective as we are, we can maintain a family-like atmosphere that extends to our field staff, host families, and exchange students. Visit our About ERDT page for more info.
How is the participant’s fee put to use? The exchange students pay a fee in their home country that is established by our partner in their home country. The fee covers the many costs and expenses that are necessary for a successful exchange program, including round-trip airfare to the final destination in the U.S. and a student pre-arrival orientation meeting. The overseas office also uses a portion of the fee for promoting the program and for office overhead and administration.
In the United States, ERDT/SHARE! uses approximately 30% of our fee for placement, orientations, and supervision. Another 10% covers health and accident insurance for the entire period of the students’ stay in the United States. Advertising, promotion, and materials are approximately 20% of the fee, with the remaining 40% used to cover office overhead and administration of the program in the United States. ERDT/SHARE! is a nonprofit educational foundation, and as a designated sponsor of high school exchange students is subject to regulations established by the United States Department of State.
*U.S. Department of State regulations prohibit the viewing of photos of prospective exchange students by persons not already vetted as hosts; therefore, photos shown are representative only. Our list of students available to be hosted are updated as often as possible, but may not be accurate in live time.
Established in 1979, Educational Resource Development Trust (ERDT) has over twenty years experience promoting cross-cultural exchange. Our SHARE! High School Exchange Program (one of several ERDT programs) is well-respected in the exchange community (overseas agents, host families and coordinators) specifically for our personal approach to student exchange. We are a medium-sized organization—large enough to provide stability and variety but small enough to maintain a personal touch. Being as selective as we are, we can maintain a family-like atmosphere that extends to our field staff, host families, and exchange students. Visit our About ERDT page for more info.
Contact your EPC, who will discuss the options with you. Behavioral or academic probation is often used in these cases. If tutoring is needed, the students’ natural parents will bear this cost. If a student’s English is too poor to continue at your school, SHARE! will repatriate the student upon receipt of a written dismissal notice from the school.
The EPC is intimately involved with many of the details that surround this cross-cultural home stay experience. Coordinators help match families with incoming students. They also communicate with local schools to make preparations for the visiting student’s arrival. During the school year, the EPC has regular contact with students, families and high schools, providing guidance and support to help insure that the experience is going as smoothly as possible. SHARE! EPCs are independent contractors who receive a placement documentation fee at the time of placement, and are further compensated monthly on a per-student basis.
The EPC is required to contact the school 4 times a year to conduct Monthly Progress Reports. We ask you to kindly please be patient with these calls, however routine they may seem. The Monthly Progress Reports go to the students’ parents, to give them an idea of how their child is doing. If your school does not have time for these 4 phone calls, please tell the EPC so that he/she can get permission to omit the school information for those month’s reports.
Italian, Serbian and Montenegrin students must be enrolled as seniors. (This is stated on the "High School Authorization To Enroll" form.) All other students may be enrolled in any grade level. Some schools choose to enroll students in the same grade level as their U.S. classmates of the same age; other schools choose to enroll all exchange students as seniors, for example, so that they may experience senior-year festivities. Aside from Italian, Serbian and Montenegrin students, SHARE! students are expected to accept their assigned grade level without complaint.
SHARE! prefers that students take American History and/or English, and that at least 2/3 of their classes be academic in nature. Many students have specific classes that they must take to meet academic requirements in their home country. It is the student's responsibility to enroll in these classes while in the U.S.; however, if your school does not offer the required classes, the student must choose other classes without complaint.
Students must maintain a “C” (2.0) average, with no failing grades (F’s). Students who do not follow this rule will be put on academic probation until their grades improve. If their grades do not improve, the student may be repatriated.
No. Students are told that they must accept the school’s decision with regards to diplomas, graduation, and playing sports. If a student is lobbying your school to change this decision, contact the student’s Exchange Program Coordinator, who will take disciplinary action.
No. It is against SHARE! rules for a student to drive any motorized vehicle in the U.S., including their host family’s car or a Driver’s Education car.
Remember – culture shock is the normal reaction to the stress & confusion of trying to adapt to living in a foreign culture. SHARE! provides students with a guide that explains some of the stages of cultural adjustment and helps them to recognize and react to these stages. Download “’Why Do I Feel Like This?’ All About The Adjustment Cycle: A Guide For Students.” If a student reports or displays signs of depression, major mood swings or thoughts of suicide, contact the EPC immediately.
Yes. We send out two sets of evaluations during the year - one shortly after the student arrives and another just before the student departs. The evaluations go to the students, host families and high schools. We review all evaluations as they come in and use them to continuously improve our program.
Contact the student's EPC to get copies of this paperwork. If you cannot reach the EPC and need the paperwork urgently, you may contact the SHARE! National Office.
Follow your legal reporting requirements, then contact the EPC. He/she has received the Stewards of Children training, which teaches adults to prevent, recognize and react responsibly to the reality of child abuse. Alternately, you may contact the SHARE! National Office.
The purpose of the SHARE! program is to teach students how people in the U.S. live, and how they can adapt to that way of living. Approach the issue with honesty and explain that if the student were to work on changing this aspect of themselves, they could get a better feeling for U.S. culture. And remember, humor can help smooth over what could be a difficult conversation! Certainly contact your EPC if you need assistance or if the student does not change this behavior.
No. This is strictly against the rules of CSIET, the governing body of exchange student programs. It is probably also against your state and/or local high school athletic association’s rules. (For this reason, school school coaches are not allowed to host students who play their sport).
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