# @txextension on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/CrTyQ6NN-FZ
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/65666324-txextension-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/acbd755019.jpg
- **Posted:** 2023-04-21T19:00:15.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service (@txextension) — https://gondola.cc/txextension

## Caption

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 necessary for anyone in the host family to be a member or even affiliated with 4-H.

Locke said the main criteria for a host family is to be open and desire to dedicate time and interest to a young person from another country and make them feel at home. Texas families have participated in the program for more than two decades, also hosting delegates from Costa Rica and South Korea. 

Families are not expected to entertain the delegate, but rather treat them as a member of their family. 

Read about personal experiences and learn more at tx.ag/BreakingBoundaries, or by visiting the #AgriLifeToday link in our bio.

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