Donna Bierd

Review of NorthWest Student Exchange

We had a terrible experience. Number 1, our stude...

We had a terrible experience. Number 1, our student DID NOT speak fluent English and had a difficult time in school to where she was failing two classes. Number 2. They told us the student would come with adequate spending money for themselves. Ours came with $100 a month. Number 3. Our student was having major difficulties and when we asked for help from our are coordinator, all she did was take our student away! The company does not back up it's parents and does not provide any help. Stay away from this company! It broke our hearts when they took our student away and we miss her terribly.

This is in response to Mr. Laband and his message to me below.. He was very upset with me after I proved to him that everything the Area Coordinator had told him was a lie. I had text and emails proving I was right. He stated in an email to me that the Area Coordinator would be receiving additional training for the incompetent way she handled the student/host situation. He also said that NWSE would issue an apology along with the Area Coordinator to me. This was all I wanted. But since he offered the above he has gone silent except for this nasty post with nothing but insinuations about me. Mr. Laband states in his post "Though I cannot share any details of your particular exchange in this public forum in order to protect and respect the student s (a minor) and your confidential information, I can list some of the general reasons that past exchange students didn't work out" Wink, Wink. Why put that out there in your post if none of that is true? It's to insinuate that maybe they are true. Is this the organization you want your family to be involved with? . I have the emails and texts to prove what I said if anyone wants to see them and maybe it will stop all the BS coming from NWSE. All I want from Mr. Laband is to apologize for what his organization did to me, my family and my student and not to allow this Area Coordinator to do these things to any other Host family again. One other thing any family thinking about hosting a family should consider. There are numerous rules and regulations that have to be followed when you become a Host family. In fact you have to sign a contract stating you will abide by these rules and so will the student. When there were issues, I did reach out to my Area Coordinator, and her reply to us was just let her be. She will figure it out. In the rules per NWSE if these said rules are broken the said student can be removed and sent back to their home country. So, instead of providing helpful information so we could work with our student, she tells us, "Just let it be, watch from above"? We were supposed to let our poor student flounder? No loving host parent would allow that. How screwed up of a statement is that? All Mr. Laband has done is insinuated wrongdoings in public and tried to tear us down. We loved our student and tried working with the school and our area coordinator to help her succeed. Was I frustrated at times, sure, I wasn't getting any help from the Coordinator. I was following the rules that I was bound by. But in the end NWSE didn't care about us. This Area Coordinator from Ft. Worth, TX., needs to be either retrained or fired because she doesn't know how to work with students, Host families or abide by NWSE rules. So, Mr. Laband, show new Host families you are willing to do the right thing. Don't further attack me because I now have the emails and text to prove what I've posted and say you are sorry or better yet, have the Area Coordinator tell me she is sorry for the way she treated my husband and myself. And for once, just admit we provided a wonderful home and experience for our student and we loved her very much. This is a direct quote from the Area Coordinator from her text message to me -Yes, you and Jim are providing a wonderful home environment and experience. Stay positive! You are doing the right things This was the day before she told me I had 2 hours to get my student ready that she was taking her out of our home. What's wrong with that picture?