Parent Story

Julianne and Andre Hutley are the parents of Damon, Kristina, Lauren, and Josh.  The following is their perspective of their involvement in the student exchange.

We first learnt about the HSCF Hutt Tempe student exchange when Kristina successfully applied for the programme in 2013.  There was an industrious eight months of fundraising for the NZ students’ airfares as well as expenses for the Tempe students when they stayed in New Zealand for five weeks.  The fundraising was a great bonding experience for the Hutt families but the real bonding began when the Tempe students arrived in June 2014.  Our American daughter, Emma slotted straight into our family and Kristina and Emma were like sisters.  We had a lot of fun showing Emma and the other students around Lower Hutt and then a little bit more of New Zealand.  When Kristina went over to Tempe for her five-week exchange all her expenses were paid for, her American family took her to Las Vegas and Texas for trips, and she met students from all around the world.

Both Lauren and Josh applied for the programme and did their exchanges in 2017 and 2019 respectively instantly connecting with their American siblings, Makenna and Christian and becoming part of their families when they were in Tempe.

As a result of the Sister City connection, our eldest son, Damon ended up interning for a New Zealand company based in Houston and staying with Emma’s Mom, for three months in 2017.

The experiences and lifelong friendships that not only the kids have made but also we have made with the families have been amazing.   We have been lucky to have met all the families of our American children and even attended Emma’s Mom’s wedding in Texas at the end of 2019.  We regularly connect with our families via the Internet, and look forward to meeting them again face to face when we can all travel again.

The experience from when the student is chosen to when the student programme has finished is exhilarating and busy.  We learnt each time with the fundraising and refined it so that we were more organised and planned for the activities here in New Zealand so our fundraising was more targeted.  The actual programme is a great way for the students to learn about responsibility, independence, and gain first-hand knowledge about another culture.