International Student Exchange Calls Babylon Home

From a quiet storefront on John Street, International Student Exchange (ISE) is in the business of changing thousands of lives every year. They do that by offering something invaluable for teenagers from all over the world and American families: broadening their horizons and giving them the experiences of a lifetime.

ISE is a nonprofit sponsored by the State Department that places 3,000 students from as far-flung locales as Vietnam, China, Spain and Mexico. The high schoolers are then placed with host families all over the country.

Christina Lanzillotto, a Long Island representative for the organization, explains that anyone can be a host.

"You don't have to have kids, although a lot of families want to host students who are close in age to their own teenagers. You can be retired, you can be a single parent, you just have to be willing to give the student a warm and loving home, three meals a day and the opportunity to study."

Students can share a room with a host family's own child if they are close in age and the same gender. ISE carefully matches prospective exchange students with families and high schools. Babylon High School has hosted several students over the years, but ISE hasn't placed a student in recent years in the village and they'd love to do so, says Lanzillotto.

"For a 16-year-old coming from Norway who has never been to the US, coming here to Long Island and seeing Manhattan, seeing the beach, they can't even believe it. It's like their dream coming true."

The students, who come with their own spending money for the school year long stay, are required to attend the local high school and are offered support and programs from ISE, whose corporate headquarters in Babylon Village houses dozens of employees. ISE is responsible for background checks and interviews of potential host families, and working with partners in foreign countries to identify potential exchange students.

Robin Gott, a mother of three from Merrick, is hosting a 16-year-old girl from France, sharing a home with Gott's own three teenaged children. Gott says she decided to become a host with ISE "because we thought it would be a wonderful and different experience for everyone in our family."

"It has been a wonderful learning experience for everyone. We have been able to share so much of our lives with her and show her how we live, and we have learned how different as well as how similar her life is in her country."