Mt. Hood Community College (MHCC) seeks families to host international exchange students in the Scholarships for Education and Economics Development (SEED) program.
Host families help students to transition into life in America by opening up their homes, preparing meals and allowing them to participate as an active member of their household. Host families may include parents and children, couples and single men and women living throughout east Multnomah County. Host families receive a $290 monthly stipend to cover the cost of a student’s room and board. If you or someone you know is interested in hosting a SEED scholar beginning in August, please contact Nikki Gillis, program coordinator, at 503-491-7505 or at gillisn@mhcc.edu.
SEED offers high school graduates from rural communities in Central America and the Caribbean an opportunity to study at MHCC at no cost to them. Students return to their countries with skills to become key players in local economic and social development, with experiences that can help make them future leaders in technology, education and democratic government.
“The young men and women chosen by their nation for the SEED program must come from a community lacking resources, they must have demonstrated in some way the ability to overcome obstacles, they must finish high school and they must show a real commitment to going back to their community after their U.S. education,” says Gillis. “And they must be brave people, to leave everything they know and come here.”
“I wish there were more programs like this for people from all over the world,” says Sheyla Dolores Rosales Gutierrez, a student from Nicaragua. “When we go home, we will see our countries with new eyes.”
