Home away from home: International House’s Thanksgiving Homestay program returns

Thanksgiving is an American holiday where many US students return home to their families for annual traditions of turkey, mashed potatoes, football, and parades.

But how does the holiday break differ for international students? For more than 60 years, the International House of Chicago’s Thanksgiving Homestay Program has worked to bridge that gap by giving thousands of international students the chance to experience the holiday with host families of rural communities in southern and western Illinois.

“Working for world peace should be everybody’s business,” wrote the program’s founder, the late Trudy Trogdon, in a paper she authored in 1958 titled Thanksgiving in Paris: A Grass-Roots Approach to World Understanding.

Trogdon, of Paris, Illinois—a small community of less than 10,000 located 165 miles south of Chicago near the Indiana state line—conceived the idea in the mid-1950s with a purpose of giving international students a chance to observe and take part in the daily life of an average American family, and to give American hosts a chance to understand the ideas and perspectives of their international guests. Despite some initial resistance and challenges, Trogdon’s enthusiasm and persistence made her dream a reality in 1956, as she organized her local community leaders and then connected them to international student affairs directors at universities in the Chicago area.

The first year saw 142 students—some with their spouses and children—visit 100 Paris homes. Trogdon later recruited state and community coordinators, and the program grew to other communities, such as those involved today: Geneseo, Morrison, Paris, Prophetstown, and Rock River Valley.

Now, after a three-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 35 host families will welcome students from Mexico, Spain, India, Taiwan, China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Nigeria, Japan, and Vietnam this Thanksgiving for a unique four-day experience that has endured for six decades. The program is completely free for students, funded partly by International House, but mostly by the host communities and families, who organize bake sales, luncheons, and other fundraisers throughout the year.

The schedule, over the years, has mostly stayed the same: students arrive by bus to their matched communities on Wednesday, have Thanksgiving dinner with the families on Thursday, and then on Friday can choose from optional local activities, such hiking in state parks, checking out the Mississippi River (a big draw and favorite outing of past participants), or exploring farms or local museums. Saturday, all the host families get together for one big dinner before students return to Chicago by bus on Sunday.

“It’s become such a tradition in these communities that when we talk to the families, they can’t imagine it being Thanksgiving without international students at their table,” said Denise Jorgens, AM’83, PhD’95, director of International House. “And for the students, it’s a really unique experience—to not just go to dinner, but to spend four days—you really do have to become part of the family to do that.”

The small rural towns also offer a change of pace from the big cities that most students are used to, as well as a glimpse into small-town America life that they might not get elsewhere. Oftentimes, the host families and students stay connected, and will attend weddings, graduations, and other celebrations later in life. Some families are even second, or third generation hosts.

Steve Caudillo, a current state coordinator of the program, helps match students with families based on their applications and needs. Caudillo started hosting students back in 1997. The retired recreational therapist said it was his own experience of studying abroad as a high school student in Madrid, Spain, that prompted him to get involved.

“I had a summer experience there that was phenomenal, the people in Madrid were very kind to me, and I thought, when I get older and get established, I want to get back into the same kind of thing,” Caudillo said. He’s also found that no matter where they come from, the students and his family have much in common.

“I’ve found over the years, the students, they’re just like me,” he added. “They want to live good lives, want to be productive in society, and have good families, friendships, and relationships. We all have a lot of the same values and commonalities.”

Sue Fonteyne, of Geneseo, Illinois, has been hosting students since 2006, and she echoed the sentiment.

“I ask a lot of questions, and I like to learn what their hopes and dreams and fears are, and I get really good insights,” she said. “I find that people pretty much have the same hopes and fears from around the world—that’s a part that’s really interesting to me.”

Past student participants of the program have also described the impact of spending four days with their hosts families through hundreds of letters, photographs, news clippings, and other materials that Trogdon, who passed away in 2005, donated to UChicago’s Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center. “The most important thing was that nobody wanted anything from each other, other than true and lasting friendship,” wrote student Indra Patel in 1987.

While the program is limited this year to a smaller number of families and to University of Chicago students, Jorgens is excited for its resumption and future growth as International House works to build it back where it was prior to the pandemic.

“International House Chicago just celebrated our 90th anniversary this past year, so we have a lot of momentum,” she said. “International Houses from around the country have a tremendous impact on international students from all over the world, so for a program like this to be resuming again, it’s just so gratifying for all of us.”