Our students are permitted to enter and leave the dorm as they wish, but visitors are required to leave the dorm at midnight. The majority of our students chose to stay in Russian homes this summer. Since the inception of Council s host-family program at the Center, this option has gained wide popularity with all programs connected to the Center. Council has worked with Irina Borisovna Shuliakovskaya, the program coordinator at the Center, to create a computer database of families that have formerly housed Council program participants. The homestay students have found that they not only get accommodations with a built-in language lab, but that they can also always count on a hot homemade meal whenever they come home.
Students choose dorm or homestay for various reasons.
We have found that some of the students who had chosen the privacy of the dorm on their housing preference form, later decide that the language and cultural benefits of a homestay are a better option. The Center now allows these students to switch within the first month of the program. In a very positive development, if students have their own homestay addresses, the Center will now work with those families, too. If students have plans to stay with a family of their choice, they are advised to provide the name, address and telephone together with their housing preference form. Quite frankly, the food at the dorm cafe is okay, but nothing to write home about, so to speak.