Each year, AYA students and Local Coordinators (LCs) nominate host families across the country for the honor of Host Family of the Year. These families open their hearts and homes to show international high school students the very best of American culture and hospitality. It is always difficult to choose a winner from the heartfelt nominations we receive, but it’s very inspiring to read story after story about the generosity, love and friendship our host families provide our students.
This year, we selected eighteen winners for Host Family of the Year at the state level and one overall winner for 2017! Drumroll, please…!



















And now, without further ado, we present the AYA Host Family of the Year:
The Pasquinelli family from Ohio!

For the past year, the Pasquinelli family have opened their hearts and their home to Almudena Mareca, an exchange student from Spain. The Pasquinelli family were nominated by Almudena for helping her to live a real American experience and become a true part of their family.
Here are some excerpts from Almudena’s nomination:
I want to nominate my host family because they are just the best host family ever. I could write a book about the reasons why they’re the best host family ever. One of the reasons, and the most important one, is because they’re not just my host family. They’ve become my family, and I think that’s the main point to a host family to be called the best host family.
I’ve run cross country and track, and they were there with me in all the meets, even if I’m not the best runner, and I’m going to tell you I’m not. But they were there, cheering for me and waiting on the finish line to tell me how good I did. That feeling of having people cheering you every time when they didn’t even have to, was amazing. They hugged me before running, they drove hours and hours just to see me run, and then they waited until the end, even when it was dark and you barely could see, but they were there waiting with the biggest smile ever.
They take pictures of me every time, like every five seconds. I’m not kidding. They’ve taken a total of 4,000 photos, and l love that because they don’t take pictures just so I can have them as a remember, they take pictures so they can have a remember of me, even when they know that they don’t need a remember because they are not going to forget me. We are going to keep in touch until we die. And obviously, we are talking about them coming to Spain to see the place I grown up.
They’ve made me become the 1st Attendant of the Gnadenhutten Historical Museum. And they took me to almost every festival in Ohio and made me live the real American life. They took me to South Carolina, they drove me ten hours to show me the ocean and have an amazing spring break. They took me to amusement parks, to places all around Ohio to show me how beautiful and green Ohio is, they’ve taught me the history of Ohio and everything about it. They feel proud of where they live, and that’s what makes it more amazing.
And I love how we cook and bake together. How our chicken enchiladas are the best in the world, and it is not just me who says that. When my host dad and I make them, we need to make like thirty chicken enchiladas, because all of our friends decide that they want to have dinner with us. And that happens every time we make chicken enchiladas. My dad and I are the best cookers of chicken enchiladas of the world, and I love that about him. Or the time when my host mom and I made almost three hundred cookies, and they were gone in two weeks.
They want me to stay safe, so when it’s time to say yes or no to something that could be not safe they tell me no. Because they want the best for me, they don’t just tell me yes to everything because they don’t care about me, or they don’t tell me no to everything because they don’t like me. They are my family, so they tell me yes when they have to, and they tell me no when it is required to say so.
I love my host family in many ways. I love how they look at me when I’m happy, and you can see on their eyes that they are happy and feel proud about me, like my family from Spain does. I love how they are just there with me when the things are not going how I thought. They’re there to hug me and keep me happy. I love how they tell me how they love my smile, and they love that I’m always smiling and laughing. I love how they want the best for me. Definitely what I love about my host family is absolutely everything.
I could continue writing about how good my host family is and telling you good things about them until I die, but I think that what I just wrote is enough to understand how amazing my host family is. And how obviously, they deserve the title of best host family.
Congratulations to all our winners and kudos to all AYA host families that open their hearts and homes to share American life and culture with students from around the world. One home, one student, one community at a time, you help us bring the world together.
Learn more about opportunities to host an international student with Academic Year in America.
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