The interest in developing a foreign exchange student program has grown out of my personal experience. Our family hosted a high school student from Germany in the 1993/94 school year, and we watched how our German daughter grew and blossomed in her year here. We feel we want to make this experience available to other students as well. Our program brings German and Swiss students to Wisconsin, where they spend up to one school year living with an American family, while attending High School. As a German national who moved to this country in 1979 to become an American, I feel am in a good position to facilitate this, as I know both cultures well and am fluent both in German and English. I believe the high quality of life here and the friendliness of the people I have met in Wisconsin represent the best of what America has to offer.
In 1996 I founded the REFLECTIONS INTERNATIONAL exchange student agency, and in 1997 REFLECTIONS INTERNATIONAL, INC. was incorporated as a 501 (c) 3 not-for-profit corporation, and has been designated the sponsor of an Exchange Visitor Program by the U.S. Department of State, the federal agency which administers exchange programs.
