Arriving at Harvard from Kenya his freshman year, Leonard C. Kogos ’12 traded in his sandals and shorts for snow boots and long underwear.

Kogos’s host mother—a former resident of Kenya—took it upon herself to assimilate Kogos to his new environment by taking him shopping for winter clothes.

Kogos’s experience is one common to many other freshmen who come to Harvard from far away locales and try to adjust to what is literally a much colder college life.

Some international students like Kogos—as well as some students who live in the U.S. but far from Cambridge—are taken under the wing of the Harvard Freshman Host Family Program. Coordinated through the Freshman Dean’s Office, the program pairs freshman with local college alumni who share their academic and personal interests in order to help ease the students’ transition into University life.

FINDING THE RIGHT FIT

Incoming freshmen apply to receive a local host family in the summer prior to their freshman year. Participation is open to all freshmen and is especially encouraged for international students, according to Christina McFarlane, assistant to the dean of freshmen and coordinator of the Host Family Program.

After assignments have been made, freshman students and host families receive each other’s contact information. Host families—which usually contain at least one Harvard alum—are expected to take the initiative to reach out to their first-year students prior to the students’ arrival in Cambridge.

Hosts and students are introduced to each other for the first time at the beginning of the school year during an event hosted by the Freshman Dean’s Office.

For the past two years, McFarlane has worked closely with both host families and freshman students to design matches.

“Every student fills out an extensive application, where they answer questions about their personal and academic interests,” McFarlane said. “I take all of their responses into account and review the applications to ensure that each pairing is a good fit.”

The program seeks out host families by directly approaching University affiliates and sending additional letters to local alumni during their respective reunion weeks to invite them to serve as hosts for freshman students.

“We always ask interested graduates, friends, and colleagues—in addition to reunion classes—if they want to help welcome first-year students to Harvard,” said Dean of Freshmen Thomas A. Dingman ’67. “This program has been growing, and we know from testimonials that host families make the freshman year experience much richer, simply by inviting host students for home-cooked meals or introducing them to the community.”

RECIPROCAL REWARDS

Participants in the program said both sides of the equation have been rewarding.

Marco Chan ’11 was raised in Vancouver and currently lives in China. Even as a junior, he continues to maintain a close friendship with the host family assigned to him freshman year.