A World Of Welcome

Camille Sherman connects international students with local host families—and hosts students herself
By Phoebe Warren

Camille, Kyson, and Kevin Sherman welcome international students into their home. photo by shane darby

For Camille Sherman, the world got pleasantly smaller when she welcomed a 15-year-old boy from Denmark into her home. In 2022, Camille and her husband, Kevin, had flown out from their hometown of Atlanta, Texas, to join a business trip with Kevin’s boss. During the trip, Camille recalled, the boss was completing paperwork to host an exchange student and asked if he could list the Shermans as a reference. “The very next day, the coordinator called and talked to Kevin,” Camille said. “He asked if we would be willing to host. So we got our first exchange student in the school year of ‘22 to ‘23. His name was Alexander Bodholdt, from Denmark.” 

It must have been fate that brought Alexander into the Shermans’ lives because the experience left a lasting impact on the whole family. “He came in and basically fit right in with our family,” Camille said. “He was always up for anything that we did, willing to try all the foods that we had, and was a normal teenager. He made many friends in school and was always on-the-go.” 

Alexander made an especially big impression on Camille’s son, Kyson, who was 13 at the time. “Having that older brother [figure] around was so good for Kyson,” Camille explained. “We saw Kyson mature so much in the first year.”

The Shermans visited students Alex and Line, along with their families, in Denmark. submitted photo

That first hosting experience lit a fire in Camille’s heart. “I knew that it was something that I wanted to continue to do, to enable the students to have a wonderful experience while in America,” she said. 

After hosting two more students, Camille felt called to take a bigger role. She became a local coordinator for Foreign Links Around the Globe (FLAG), a US-based nonprofit international exchange organization that places over 500 students each year from more than 25 countries into American homes. 

As a FLAG coordinator, Camille recruits host families, helps match them with students, and supports everyone throughout the student’s stay. Her work goes beyond social media outreach; she personally connects with families and students to ensure a good fit. “A lot of times I will look for a student with interests that I know a family may have,” she said. “For instance, I currently have a student that loves to play the trumpet, so I have geared him towards my band parents so that he may join the Big Bad Band from Rabbit Land [Atlanta High School band’s nickname].” 

Once a family expresses interest, Camille helps guide them through the process: background checks, an in-home visit to confirm the living situation, and coordination with the student’s future school. After approval with the school in question, the host family is able to communicate with the student until they arrive.

Since joining FLAG, Camille has welcomed five students into her own home, each leaving behind lasting relationships. Kevin notes that every student has been “just like having another child in the house,” but with an extra lesson attached. “It opens your eyes to how people live around the world,” he said.

The Sherman family took Jirapat and Haruto to an Arkansas Razorbacks football game. submitted photo

Each student brings a new precious memory to the Sherman family’s story. Jirapat Pooseengoen, from Thailand, and Haruto Tomita, from Japan, attended an Arkansas Razorbacks football game with the Shermans and were amazed at the chance to see American football. Two other students, Raiku Saarikallio, from Finland, and Line Widera, from Germany, got to attend a Dallas Stars hockey game. That trip was made even more memorable when Raiku’s cousin, Miro Heiskanen, player #4 for the Stars, skated over to the glass and tossed Raiku a puck. 

The Shermans keep in contact with each student they’ve welcomed. A few have even come back for visits. Even with the cultural adjustments—”Texas heat!” Camille laughed, along with the frequency of dining out in America—most students adapt to their new surroundings quite swiftly. “Most of the students are very excited about learning American culture,” Camille said. “They are excited to get the experience of all the school activities and sports that each school may offer. Most of our exchange students do not have any type of dances [in their home countries], so prom is definitely a number-one thing that they are excited about experiencing.” 

Camille and the rest of her family encourage others to open their homes and hearts to exchange students. “[Living with an exchange student] can teach you patience through the culture differences and language differences,” she said. “I believe just seeing the world in a different way than what we see here in America is important.”