• Be at least 25 years old and have permanent residence in the USA.

• Ensure that everyone 17 or older living in the home can pass a criminal background check.

• Have a willingness to provide interim housing for students (Spare room or shared room with an extra bed required).

There is no typical profile! Our coordinators live all across the country and come from all sorts of different backgrounds: stay-at-home parents, business owners, professors, newlyweds, empty nesters and more! Some have children, others don’t. Some coordinators like to do the role with their significant other, while others prefer to work solo.

Up to you! It's a flexible role and you get to determine how involved you are. Some of our IECs place one EF exchange student in their free time, while others place upwards of 20. The more students you work with - the more hours you'll work. So it all depends on your availability and personal goals!

There are seasons to this role. For example, coordinators are encouraged to recruit EF host families throughout the year before the next school year - meaning spring and summer can be an important time to finalize those last loose ends. Then, in the late summer and early fall, the focus shifts to supporting students - so more time is spent conducting orientations and getting to know students and host families as they settle in together. Throughout the school year, monthly contact with EF exchange students ensures our program participants are well supported and making the most of their experience.

Coordinators are compensated for each student they match with a family and for supervising all their students during the year. In addition to the financial compensation, coordinators earn travel rewards and other benefits.

We've got you. EF provides extensive training to coordinators - new and veteran - so everyone feels comfortable and confident in the role. Some of this is a US Department of State requirement - but we go above the bare minimum to make sure our coordinators are the best in the industry. Additionally, we offer exclusive (yet optional) development programs to all our coordinators throughout the year. These might be microlearnings on how to use social media to promote exchange or webinars with our Support team to learn best practices to responding to student concerns. Coordinators also receive professional development opportunities at regional meetings with other local coordinators, at the annual National Conference and through our extensive (free!) library of on-demand learning modules.

We get this question a lot. Coordinators are not required to host an exchange student full time, though many do. They find that it deepens their relationships with their students, their families and this program. Hosting allows them to live the experience first hand. Coordinators are our first line of support for students - so they must be willing to provide temporary, emergency housing if the need should arise.