WOLSEY — Having perhaps too big a heart led Eric and Ashley Hiles to a path that has now brought 13 foreign exchange students to their home and placed Ashley in the position of area representative for the American Scandinavian Student Exchange (ASSE).

“I wanted to do foster care and my husband said ‘no,’” Ashley recalls. “He felt that I would get too attached and not be able to let the kid(s) go home.”

She continues, “So I saw a post on exchange students, and I signed us up!”

Eric and Ashley, both graduates of Wolsey High School, already had a houseful, with three daughters and a son. However, adding another child was right up Ashley’s alley.

Udi Enoch, a former exchange student from Nigeria, recalled some trepidation about coming to America, but Eric and Ashley’s hospitality eased those worries.

“At first, I thought the journey wouldn’t be an easy one but with the help of my host family, the Hiles, it was much easier than I thought,” Udi shared. “The program taught me a lot about how to live with people whose culture is different from mine, who have different skin color, thoughts, dressings, and foods than mine here in Nigeria.”

Ashley’s contact also allowed parents to be more at ease about sending their children in the program.

“From the beginning, we had very good contact with Ashley,” Elly Neumann-Fabri stated. Her daughter Ronja stayed with the Hiles in 2019-2020. “For me as a mom, it was very difficult to let Ronja fly abroad. She was only 15 years old when she left. From the contact I had with Ashley, though, I was a bit more relaxed.”

Ronja’s stay in the United States was shortened by the COVID-19 pandemic, a year that Ashley said was her “hardest” as a host. Still, Elly says that Ronja gained plenty from the experience.

“Ronja came back more mature. She had a lot of experiences and has a second family now,” she stated via email. “It is a bond that will stay forever. They will always be a part of her life!”

Udi’s mother was also effusive with praise for the ease that she felt after encountering Ashley.

“It was really difficult for me to allow my daughter to go to a strange land, but I was also proud of her for being able to get the scholarship,” Enoch Bala Sokoto, Udu’s mother, expressed. “My confidence grew stronger when (Udi) told me about how nice and welcoming the Hiles family was.”

Over the past five years, the Hiles family hosted 13 foreign exchange students from around the globe.

Their actions have inspired others at Wolsey-Wessington school and around the area, with four foreign exchange students part of the student body at Wolsey-Wessington this past year.

In that time, Ashley has become a strong advocate for the program, so much so that she now serves as an area representative for ASSE, and she is always seeking more people that are willing to share their home with a student coming to the United States to learn the culture.

There are some requirements of host families, but it’s fairly basic.

“A single person would have to host two students, however, if they have a child living with them already, they could do only one,” Ashley explained. “That’s for safety reasons for the student and the host parent. We also do a background check, so a prospective host family has to have a clean record.”

And the requirements for the students?

“They are aged 15-18,” Ashley noted. “Each has to do an oral test, listening test, and writing test to come along with getting pre-exchange clearance from a doctor and psychiatrist. Finally, they have to get a visa from the American embassy.”

If financial concerns are an issue, Ashley says that the students often come after earning a scholarship and with funding through the program.

There is much more than finances involved in the experiences gained from both host family and student, however. The Hiles’ first exchange student, Maria from Spain, had this to say:

“I went out for volleyball, basketball, and track, which helped (in transition to America) because being part of the team made me talk and hang out with different people. I played volleyball since I was eight years old, but I pushed myself to try different sports and realized how good it is to try different things.”

She finished her description of her experience by saying, “I don’t think there was any bad part about my experience.”

The Hiles family has also experienced a change. Beyond having to drive host students where they need to go, and having their food eaten (especially by host student Ricky this year!), the Hiles children have made lifelong connections with all of the students. In fact, when former foreign exchange students and students’ parents responded to inquiry about the experience, every one mentioned some aspect of interacting with the Hiles children.

The Hiles family celebrated the graduation of their two foreign exchange students in their home on May 20. Back (L to R): Marrien Gohn, Alyssa Hiles, Ashley Hiles, Maela Di Vito, Hannah Hiles, Riccardo Maurovic, Eric Hiles. Front: Clayton Hiles, Haylee Hiles. Photo by Benjamin Chase/Plainsman

The memories are strong for the Hiles family as well.

“Honestly, every student has special memories with us and some funny ones that I can’t share because they’re between the students and us,” Ashley relayed. She did share some funny moments, such as a student blowing his nose on the basketball court, attempting to wear tight jeans out to the (Hiles family) farm, teaching a student to swim, and even having an exchange student make it to state in cross country.

The connection between the family and students continued to come back up.

“One student keeps coming back to visit, and we met her family in New York City to play tourist together,” Ashley mentioned. “We had four exchange students attend our oldest’s graduation!”

This year, daughter Hannah formed a special bond with Maela, who came from Belgium to stay with the Hiles’.

“They are the same person,” Eric and Ashley agreed. “That will be a bond that they’ll have for life.”

So, if a potential host parent is interested, what should they do?

“The first step would be to get ahold of me,” Ashley stated. “My phone is 605-350-3494 and my email is amcgillvrey21@hotmail.com. I can answer any questions you have.”

From there, the potential host would go to ASSE.com to start the application. From there, a background check is done and Ashley contacts the three references listed on the application. Then, Ashley does a house visit and works to get approval from the host school.

Once the application is done, the potential host would get to begin looking at students that are looking for a host for the upcoming school year.

“After that’s all done, you can start to talk to your student,” Ashley said, excitedly. “Once your student arrives, I will be calling every month to check in with the families and the students, but I am always available whenever someone needs.”

“We will do three activities within the year, and I will work around your schedule,” Ashley concluded.

Those events assisted in transition for many of the exchange students.

“It was good to see others who came to this part of the country and hear how they were doing in their school,” Riccardo (Ricky) Maurovic, one of the two students that stayed with the Hiles this year, smiled. “We all come from different places, but have coming here in common.”

All the world, coming to Wolsey, population less than 500 people as of the 2020 census, and made possible because of a heart that wasn’t too big, but just the right size for what was needed.