Texas families have been participating in the Texas 4-H International Exchange Program to provide youth and families with life-changing experiences. Twenty participants aged 11-14, known as delegates, and two chaperones from throughout Japan will travel to Texas to stay with a volunteer host family July 23-Aug 16. “The homestays provide a rich environment where the visitors are immersed in our culture,” said Darlene Locke, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service specialist in the Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communications. “They are not here as tourists, but to engage with the host family each day they are in Texas. And the host families share their Texas hospitality and introduce the delegate or chaperone to their own special part of the world.” To be a host family, there should be a child in the family of the same gender as the delegate and within a range of four years of the delegate’s age. Furthermore, even though this is a 4-H-related program, it is not nec...