CHI has been welcoming Japanese exchange students to Prince George, British Columbia since 1992. Over the last 27 years, approximately 1,000 students and more than 60 teachers from Japan have visited Prince George and some of the volunteer CHI families have been hosting for a decade or more. This is the final year of this amazing cultural exchange between Takamatsu and Prince George.
Local paper the Prince George Citizen wrote a wonderful article about the 36 11th-grade students who recently spent two and a half weeks living with host families and exploring Canada. Read the full article.
“The relationship between Takamatsu and Prince George is very strong and I attribute that to the fact the families in Prince George are so caring and open to share their lives and their homes with the students and really embrace this cultural experience in a way that isn’t always common in bigger cities and even though Prince George isn’t a big city their relationships are huge and it’s been very successful,” CHI Program Director Micki Lalonde said. “This is the last year the program is coming to Prince George because some of the teachers are retiring after many years so we’re going to move the program to Salem, Oregon next year where we think we’ve found people that will replicate the caring experience we’ve had in Prince George.”
