System May Break Bond Between Exchange Student, Hosts

Daniel Uhlhorn, a 17-year-old from Germany, started gearing up for his year in America last October. Sheri and Charles Solomon, a Spokane Valley couple, mailed an application to host an exchange student last November.

Daniel arrived in August, unpacked his trumpet and happily settled in at the Solomons’ home, about six blocks from University High School. Although he was not guaranteed at place at U-Hi, he attended band camp, along with Katie Solomon, a U-Hi junior who also plays the trumpet.

“We have so much in common,” says Katie Solomon, who spent a month in Germany this summer.

Helped by his fluent English, Daniel quickly made friends with the family and other U-Hi students.

Yet this weekend, everyone at the Solomons’ house is waiting for the phone to ring.

U-Hi has enrolled more than its limit of exchange students, and Daniel is expecting to be relocated somewhere in the Northwest. He may stay in Spokane, he may find himself in Alaska.

The family knew this might happen. The agency, Youth For Understanding, asked them to serve as his “welcome family,” warning that if Daniel didn’t make it into U-Hi, he would have to move.

“I’m going to cry,” says Sheri Solomon. “But he’s a wonderful kid. He’ll do fine wherever he goes.”

When everyone started planning so early, how could such disappointment result?

Daniel’s case is not unique in the Spokane Valley, where in a typical year about 30 foreign exchange students attend high school.

About a half dozen exchange students were turned away from U-Hi just as school was starting. East Valley High School also turned away a few students.

Central Valley High School, on the other hand, provided valuable overflow capacity for students who didn’t get into U-Hi, says head counselor Terry Irwin.

In some cases where exchange students scramble for a school with room for them, it appears that the agencies themselves are to blame for poor planning. The answer in Daniel’s case involves more than one reason, including sheer accident:

Although the Solomons mailed their application to Youth For Understanding early, the paperwork was lost. Sheri Solomon didn’t contact the agency until June.

What she didn’t know was that by that time, U-Hi had already made commitments to all the foreign exchange students it was prepared to accept for the coming year.

“I encourage families who want to host an exchange student to contact us in April. We will do our screening and have our commitments made by the end of May,” said Kathy Steblaj, the U-Hi counselor who has registered exchange students for nine years.

Steblaj explains why her school keeps a tight lid on the number of foreign exchange students. She emphasizes that although most exchange students are good students who add to the school as a whole, there are some wrinkles in the way both exchange students and the agencies responsible for them interact with U-Hi.

First, Steblaj says, the classes that foreign exchange students normally want, such as U.S. history, civics, U.S. government and English are already required classes. They fill up early, and U-Hi counselors struggle to find spots for local students, never mind exchange students.

Especially at the start of the year, Central Valley School District’s two high schools have a notoriously tough time solving all their scheduling conflicts.

“We are jammed in those classes,” Steblaj said. “If I can’t provide a program that will benefit that student, what sense does it make to enroll him?”

Another problem: U-Hi occasionally has foreign students whose English skills are so slim that they struggle all year long.

While that’s certainly not the case with Daniel, it’s one of the issues that has led U-Hi to set its current policies, Steblaj said.

Steblaj said that all summer long she talked to agencies, explaining that U-Hi was not admitting any more exchange students this year.

“But you know, several of those kids were the ones who showed up at the last minute,” she said.

“I talked to one woman - I’m not sure if she was a mom or (an agency) rep. She looked like she was about to burst into tears. She had just been out to the airport to pick up a student, and there had been another boy there, too,” Steblaj said.

So this woman, whoever she was, faced the daunting prospect of not one but two exchange students to get settled just as school was opening.

U-Hi and East Valley high schools each have eight exchange students this year and say they are at their limit. Central Valley has nine and West Valley has six.

Daniel has nothing but praise for Youth For Understanding. He tells of a week of orientation YFU put on last spring, complete with crazy food combinations and role-playing to give the German teens the sense of being disoriented in a strange land.

Meanwhile, other members of U-Hi’s marching band are bitterly disappointed that there’s apparently no room for their new friend Daniel.

“It was the whole friendship thing. Everybody liked him,” said John Hull, a trombone player and junior.

In fact, there’s still a flicker of a chance.

Steblaj said on Thursday, “I don’t want to raise any hope, but…”

Official student counts were to be taken on Friday. After U-Hi officials have had a chance to digest Friday’s numbers, as well as enrollment in required classes, there’s is a slight chance one more student just might be squeezed in.

“And no matter what, come June, Daniel is going to Yellowstone with us. That’s a promise,” says Sheri Solomon.