Greenheart uses cookies to let you interact with our services, and for marketing and advertising purposes. Some of these cookies are strictly necessary for our sites to function and by using this site you agree that you have read and understand our use of cookies.
Our marketing and advertising cookies are non-essential and you can opt out of using them with this tool. Blocking cookies may impact your experience on our website.
These cookies are necessary for our sites to function properly. These cookies secure our forms, support login sessions and remember user dialogue. Because the site does not function without these cookies, opt-out is not available. They are not used for marketing or analytics.
These cookies are used to enhance the relevance of our advertising on social media and to tailor messages relevant to your interests.
These cookies collect anonymous data on how visitors use our site and how our pages perform. We use this information to make the best site possible for our users.
Privacy Notice
Greenheart International
Effective Date: 1/9/2019
This privacy notice describes how Greenheart International collects, uses, and discloses Personally Identifying Information (also known as “PII”) or Personal Data (collectively “Personal Information”) from and about users of Greenheart International websites. This privacy notice also applies to any associated paper forms. Please read this privacy notice before using Greenheart International websites or submitting any personal information.
These practices may be changed at any time. Changes will be posted along with the date of the change. You should review this privacy notice when you visit Greenheart International websites to make sure that you understand how Personal Information is collected, used, and disclosed.
The Personal Information you provide to us is only used to:
We may use non-Personal Information for additional reasons described in the remainder of this privacy notice.
If you identify yourself to us by sending us an email with questions or comments, we may retain your comments for future reference.
Greenheart collects Personal Information, which is information that on its own or in combination with other information may be used to identify, contact, or locate an individual. Examples include:
Greenheart International collects other information that relates to you but does not identify you. Examples include clickstream data and web-browsing information (such as the date and time you visit a website, whether you click on various advertisements or links and the search terms you enter when using a website), and information about your computer, device and internet connection, and geographic location.
We collect Personal Information from you in the following ways:
We may share information gathered by us from Greenheart International websites with governmental agencies or other companies assisting us in providing services to you. We may do so when:
Information provided under one of the four preceding bullet points will not be used by those receiving it for marketing purposes, unless specifically authorized by the user.
Third parties who provide webhosting services or other services that make possible the operation of Greenheart International websites and the services you request through the websites may have access to information that you provide us to the extent that those third parties require access to our databases to service the websites.
In connection with the sale or transfer of all or part of our assets, we reserve the right to transfer information we have obtained from or about you.
We are not responsible for any breach of security or for any actions of any third parties that receive information from us.
Greenheart International websites are hosted and maintained in the United States of America. Your Personal Information may be transmitted to countries outside of the European Economic Area, including the United States of America. You can obtain details of the mechanism under which your personal data is transferred outside the EU by contacting us. If your Personal Information is transferred outside the European Economic Area to third party service providers, we will take steps to ensure that your Personal Information receives the same level of protection as if it remained within the European Economic Area, including by entering into data transfer agreements using the European Commission approved Standard Contractual Clauses, or by relying on certification schemes such as the EU–US Privacy Shield.
Greenheart International websites use cookie and tracking technology to collect non-Personal Information. Our system also automatically gathers information about areas you visit on our websites, and about the links you select from within one of our websites to the other areas of the World Wide Web or elsewhere online. We use such information in the aggregate to understand how our users as a group use the services and resources provided on our websites. This way we know which areas of our websites are preferred by our users, which areas need improvement, and what technologies are being used so that we may continually improve our websites. Personal Information cannot be collected via cookies and other tracking technology, however, if you previously provided us with your Personal Information, cookies may be tied to such information. Aggregate cookie and tracking information may be shared with third parties but that aggregate information does not identify individual website users. Our web servers do not record visitor email addresses unless that information is submitted by the visitor. We may determine what technology is available through your browser to provide you with the most appropriate version of a web page. Greenheart International uses Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, Gravity Forms, Yoast, Formstack, Calendly, GoOverseas, and other web traffic tracking tools.
Greenheart International websites contain links to other websites. These links are for your convenience. We do not control, endorse or review the privacy notices of other websites, which may be different than this privacy notice. You should review the privacy notice of other websites before choosing to disclose Personal Information.
Greenheart takes steps to secure your Personal Information. We exercise care in providing secure transmissions when we need to transfer your Personal Information from our servers. Our websites use secure server software encryption, which is indicated by https in the url of the website. Encryption is a common method of ensuring that information remains private. Greenheart International cannot guarantee or warrant that the information that you transmit to us, or any communications is completely secure.
Greenheart International only retains data for as long as necessary for the purposes indicated in this privacy notice or for such other period as may be permitted or required by law.
For children age 14-16, Greenheart International takes additional steps to protect their Personal Information. We do not intend to collect Personal Information from children aged 13 or younger. These additional steps include:
The marks Greenheart, Greenheart Heart Logo, and Sobresmesa are either registered or unregistered trademarks of Greenheart International. All Rights Reserved. Any unauthorized use is prohibited.
Certain jurisdictions provide their residents or citizens with certain rights about their Personal Information. These may include the right to request access to the data we hold about you, to obtain a copy of your Personal Information, to request that your Personal Information be erased, to correct inaccurate information, to ask us to restrict how we process your Personal Information, or to withdraw your consent to our processing of your Personal Information. Your individual rights will depend on your residency and citizenship.
Please contact us using the following information for more information about this privacy notice, to notify us of a concern or complaint, or to exercise any of the individual rights you may have.
Data Protection Officer
By mail: 742 N LaSalle Dr. Chicago, IL 60654 Suite 300, USA
By email: click here
By phone: +1 312-944-2544
Additionally, all marketing emails and newsletters from Greenheart International allow you to opt out of further correspondence. You can do so by clicking the link within the emails, which will guide you on how to opt-out.
Teens all over the world have dreams of attending a High School in the USA, and of experiencing American culture first hand. These experiences are made possible by Greenheart’s community of host families–people who open their hearts and homes to international high school exchange students. These host families share their homes and their perspectives on life in the USA, and often make life-long friends with their student and his/her family.
Being a host family is a commitment. And we treasure each and every one of our host families. We love to hear why they started hosting and what keeps them doing it. Here is Kathy Mann’s response to those questions.
We are both 60 years old and one year into empty nesting, after raising our six kids. Much to my surprise, I discovered that I missed having kids in our home after ours all left! Having kids in the home adds a richness, energy, and interest to our family life that I found lacking when our home emptied out. I also love mothering (e.g., the nurturing and care of children) and discovered that I really missed doing that. So hosting an exchange student was appealing to add all that back into our family/home life for a time.
My husband and I also both enjoy learning about and experiencing other cultures. We knew that if we hosted an exchange student, we would have the opportunity to meet an interesting person and learn about another culture and country different than our own, and gain a broader perspective of the world and life. We would also get a lot of pleasure out of teaching an exchange student about our culture and country. Lastly, our faith is very important to us, and the bible tells us to be hospitable to strangers. Hospitality is a way to show love and care to another person in need of a place to live.
Ana from Georgia had been accepted as an exchange student and was so excited to come to the U.S., but she was getting rather stressed that she had not been chosen by a family to host her. With time running out before classes started, she was sad thinking about the possibility that she might not get a family home placement and that she might be unable to realize her dream of coming to the U.S. When we chose her, and she found out she was matched with a family, she was beyond excited!
Hosting an exchange student is everything we had hoped it would be. Our Greenheart Local Coordinator did a great job of suggesting student profiles that she thought would be a good match for us, and the student we got (Ana) was perfect for our family! Ana has added such interest to our empty-nesting life!
I’m not going to lie…there was a lot to do to get ready for our student’s arrival, and right after our student came too! But since we are empty nesters, I had extra time on my hands and familiarity with some of the things we had to do, because I had had to do them with my own kids when they were growing up!
Before Ana came, we prepared her bedroom so that she would have a comfortable place to rest and relax. We had a lot of paperwork to complete for her high school, and it was a stretching experience to learn the technology to create accounts for school-based websites that would be necessary for her to see assignments, check grades, and pay fees. We attended a local orientation for host families, and got familiar with Ana’s health insurance should she need to use it for illness or injury. Once she came, we had a very busy week setting up her bank account, choosing a cell phone plan and getting that set up, going to her school orientation for new students, choosing classes, shopping for school supplies, getting COVID vaccines, and getting immunizations she was missing and needed to attend school. Whew…it was a lot! But it was welcome work in some ways, because we were strangers with each other and didn’t have that comfortable familiarity to just hang out, doing nothing in particular. So it was good to have things to do in those initial days to keep us busy. It was challenging also, because those early days were the ones where jet lag set in and there was a lot of fatigue for Ana, too. We learned to do one or two things in the morning hours and then be home so that she could rest or nap until her body got used to the time change from traveling across the world.
For our family, there were a couple of hard things about hosting an exchange student.
The first one is that for us, we had gotten used to empty nesting and having our house be our place of total respite and relaxation. Introducing a stranger to the home takes your home from being a place of respite/comfort to a place of mild uncomfortableness and being slightly on edge, at least at first! There is a stranger moving around in your home that you aren’t used to, and it can be hard to simply relax as we used to know relaxation. There are extra conversations to be had to make sure the student is not lonely or bored, or just needs a listening ear; and there are extra errands to run or do when the student needs something, and frequent interruptions when the student needs to know how to do something like run the dishwasher or washing machine, or wants to know what foods she can help herself to when she is hungry, or just wants someone to talk to or do something with.
The second hard thing was when we thought we were communicating clearly about something and that the student understood it, but finding out later from her actions that indeed she had not understood it at all! Comprehension often lags behind expression of language, so don’t be deceived into thinking that just because your student has good expressive language skills in English, that he or she understands the English language just as well!
Both of these hard things have improved over time! Once we got comfortable with our student, we felt like we could relax more again in our home. As Ana’s English got better with practice and lots of textbook reading, her comprehension improved and there are less times where she doesn’t understand what we say to her.
Nearly every day, we learn more interesting and new things about Ana’s culture and country. We have enjoyed cooking Georgian meals together and we love the cuisine of that country. We have also learned so much about Georgia. When we were matched with Ana, we knew absolutely nothing about her country. In fact, I’m embarrassed to admit it, but I had to google Georgia and see where it was even located in the world. I’d never heard of Georgia!
Greenheart’s resources for host families is also excellent, and provided us much needed information on Georgia’s history, people, customs and culture, so that we could be a bit more prepared before our student came. Now that Ana has been with us for several months, we have learned so much about her country’s politics, religion, culture, and family life. We have celebrated her birthday in the Georgian style, and often prepare and eat Georgian meals together. It has also been interesting in light of the current political unrest between Ukraine and Russia, to have Ana’s perspective on this, given that her country and older relatives have experienced firsthand a takeover of their country by Russia.
It was fun introducing Ana to American foods she has never had (peanut butter, lasagna, Cheetos, Mexican fare, and so many more), introducing her to our American holidays and other cultural events (Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the Super Bowl stand out as favorites so far), and traveling to Colorado, Chicago, and California. Ana had never seen huge skyscrapers before, or stood so close to animals at a zoo. She was brought to tears for the privilege to stand so close to tigers and lions, and also to see original Van Gogh art! It has been fun to experience some of these “firsts” with our student and see the U.S. through her eyes!
Thank you Kathy for sharing your hosting story with Greenheart! If you’re interested in being a Host Family for an international high school exchange student, please visit HostwithGreenheart.org to Learn More and Apply.