STS Education Avaliações 

The organisation organises everything very well. They take great care of the exchange students. Every carer makes sure that everything runs smoothly. At the beginning, you have to fill out a lot of forms and do a lot of online tasks. It's really exhausting, but it's very useful. The organisation is very expensive, but very thorough and you don't have to worry, they plan everything for you. I love that in that organisation you and your hostfamily have to write a monthly report, to inform your supervisor:in, if your doing fine. It's a good way to stay in touch with your supervisor:in.
All in all, it's a great organisation.

I had a great family and found friends on the first day of school. Not only the other international but also the québécois took me in almost immediately. I got to learn how to be independent and found a new person in myself. Best year of my life so far. Experiencing the topical American high school life and finding a new home in people I didn’t know 10 months ago was unbelievably for my old self. But now 10 months later I found my second family. Of course there were some rough times too but the good memories over shined those. I would recommend everyone who asks me to make that same decision as me and be able to get their horizon widened.
And school was easier too so….

Anfangs schien noch alles schön und gut, die ersten Monate verliefen gut und wir hatten nichts zu bemängeln. Doch allerdings ist die Kommunikation innerhalb der Organisation und vor allem zur amerikanischen Partnerorganisation extrem konfus, so dass wir nach einiger Zeit mit verschiedenen Nachrichten von verschiedenen Personen bombardiert wurden, weil es zu einer absoluten Fehlkommunikation zwischen den verschiedenen Ansprechpartnern gekommen war. Das endete darin, dass die Gastfamilie einen völlig verfälschten Bericht bekommen hat und durch dieses Missverständnis unsere Tochter fast die Familie wechseln musste, obwohl sie sich überhaupt nichts hat zu Schulden kommen lassen. Nur durch sehr viel Mühen unsererseits und vor allem unserer Tochter wurde das Missverständnis geklärt. STS war hier wenig hilfreich. Das scheinen mir völlig veraltete und unkontrollierte Strukturen zu sein, die überall für Panik, Ärger und verletzte Gefühle sorgen, weil zu wenig mit Bedacht und mit Hinblick auf den Schüler gehandelt wird. Von der deutschen Seite von STS bin ich mehr als enttäuscht, da hat man das Gefühl, dass lediglich der finanzielle Aspekt im Vordergrund steht, aber das Menschliche spielt hier nur eine kleine Rolle!

Our son spent his year abroad between July 23 and April 24 through STS with the Classic program in New Zealand. We found STS to be very professional, approachable and helpful in all questions. There were several meetings for students and parents ahead of our son's departure so we all felt very well prepared and questions could be answered. He was placed in a smaller town on the North Island with a very nice family, everything fell into place straight away, so there were no difficulties such as changing the host family or anything similar. We see the random assignment of the school and the host family as a blessing, because otherwise we might have chosen a larger city where he would not have experienced all the beautiful things that he could now take with him. The college he went to was great too. At the end of his stay we as his family picked him up in New Zealand with a stop in Indonesia on our way back to Germany and STS was very helpful in rebooking his return flight. In case our younger daughter plans to go for an exchange year in the future our choice would be STS all over again.

I was an exchange student with STS in the schoolyear of 2000-2001 and went from the Netherlands to the USA. I left on august 18th 2000, which was too late to attend the Welcome orientation days in New York, but i still had an amazing year which couldn't have been better than the way it turned out.
Beforehand STS had an information night and i also needed to do an interview in English. Afterwards i eventually got accepted and they found me a host family 2 weeks before i left. I was placed in the small town of North Fond du Lac, Wisconsin and had a blast. Even now, 23 years later, still so many memories and mutiple times i visited after my exchange year for reunions, weddings and also friends and host family members that have visit me here in my country. Its a year in a life but you take it with you for the rest of your life. Im also still in touch with my area representative, Calla Kuehl, who was someone from another organisation that was my go to person when i had questions of things that needed being taken care of. She is the best.
Its been an amazing experience and if you have the chance to take it, please do! You'll love it.

My exchange semester with STS was the best experience of my life!
STS helped me with everything and prepared me for my time abroad. I stayed in Canada for 5 months and I loved it. I met so many amazing people from all over the world, made friendships that will last even after my time in Canada and I tried lots of new things. Also I couldn't imagine a better host family. I would 100% recommend everyone, who has the opportunity, to study abroad! It is something you will never forget and you learn a lot. Not only was I able to improve my language skills but also to grow as a person. I appreciate everything I got from that semester!
Thank you STS!

Unsere Tochter war im Schuljahr 2021/22 in Texas und es war eine sehr gute Erfahrung für sie. Leider hat die erste Gastfamilie nicht gepasst. Die lokale Koordinatorin hat sie und ihre spanische Gastschwester dann übernommen und von da an hat alles super gepasst. Es war so wie wir es uns vorgestellt haben, ein aktives Familienleben, ein ausgefüllter Schulalltag mit vielen neuen Eindrücken und vielen neuen Freunden!

STS arbeitet sehr professionell. Wir haben uns stets sehr gut betreut und vorbereitet gefühlt. Die Kinder wurden nie alleine gelassen, die enge Betreuung hat uns sehr gefallen. Es ist alles reibungslos verlaufen, vielen Dank dafür!

The program was great but, there was a time when I was offered a trip to Xi'an with my fellow STS students and it was canceled. The reason behind it was that because there was so little of us we either all had to go or no one goes. I understand the reasoning as there was only four of us but I really wish I could have gone with my friends. Luckily I was still able to go to Xi'an later but it was only with my teacher, it was fun but I wish I could have shared the experience.

Frau Zillessen und Frau Basch von STS Deutschland konnten auch nach Monaten keine passende Gastfamilie für unseren Sohn in den USA anbieten.
Ist ihr Kind in den USA hat STS Education gar keinen Einfluss mehr und auch kein Interesse irgendetwas zu verändern. Unserer sportlicher Sohn musste seinen Aufenthalt aus mentalen Gründen nach 4 Monaten abrechen. Er fühlte sich betrogen. Er verbrachte seine Zeit in Anderson/Indiana bei einer STS Mitarbeiterin. Gerne können Sie uns für Details zum Anderson Fall kontaktieren.

Our daughter just now spends a highschool-year in the USA with STS. We had and have still a very good experience with STS and especially Philine Kowalski, who manages the Viennese office of STS.
As the organisation is small, some things take a litte longer, especially the information about the hostfamily and the location of our daughter came quite late and required some patience from us. But - we were informed by STS in advance about that and never had a reason not to trust the organisation. Everything worked out well, the preparation day in Austria was great and our daughter hast the BEST hostfamily one could think of!
Thank you, STS, for all!

I am horrified to find that this foundation is still active.

I hardly have words to describe the worst year of my life. For many years I buried the memories put on me as a young girl, feed by negligence and greed by STS Foundation.

As a 16 year old, against all odds, I manage to daily attend and graduate as a honor roll student the senior class of 1998 at Wray High School in Yuma Country in Colorado. But an achievement like that has absolutely no joy to me, knowing the sacrifice I had to pay for achieving it.

I spent the first 4 month of my exchange year desperately trying to leave the first host family, then I lived with kind people who took me in for 1 month until a random immature 25 year old couple decided that it could be “fun”, if I stayed at their house the last part of my exchange year abroad. On Christmas Day I was dropped off at their isolated trailer house 5 mile outside of Wray, a the small village with 2.400 residents. This was the first time I meet them.

I have seen and experienced the horrors of deeply dysfunctional American host families.
Domestic violence, heavy drug use (adult family members smoking meth), heavy drinking on weekdays, inappropriate behavior towards minors (from family members). Unregular meals, do I even need to mention that the diet was unhealthy. I gained 25 kilos.

The coordinator who was supposed to protect, guide and listen was only in it for her own gain. She was a “friend of the house” to my first host family and clearly only had their interest in mind.
Her very educated guidance advice to my host family was to strongly reduce my contact to my family in Denmark, until I was willing to adapt and obey. The host family was dysfunctional, clearly mentally challenged and not capable of providing a safe environment for a teenage girl.

My parents in Denmark tried to contact STS a number of times, to plead them to listen to me or at least make them aide to solve the situation. There was absolutely no attempt to do so.

In the following years there has been several articles written in the danish news papers, about all the horrible and shocking experiences Danish exchange students has had to endure abroad with STS Foundation though several decades..

STS really need to get out of this business, they are ruining young people’s life.

Do not trust a foundation like STS, who has successfully hidden their negligence and have enabled fraud and scam through decades.

Anne Anker Thomsen

Ms Kowalski , the person in charge in Vienna did a great job. It took us a long time for a decision and we had some special wishes. Ms Kowalski took care, that our daughter got a perfect host family. Whenever there is a question Ms.Kowalski and her team triy to find a solution. It is really a good experience and I can recommend STS 100%.

STS and particularly the Vienna office did a great job so that we felt very comfortable with the whole buying and placing process. Our daughter is very happy in the US and enjoys her exchange year and loves her host siblings and familiy very much.

I had a fantastic experience from my high school year 1986-1987 in California! Thank you STS! Looking back at my life I understand and appreciate everything I got from that year and how I grew and developed as a person.
To come to a new country, live with a new family, new school and make new friends was fun and exiting but also time to time challenging. It made me become a strong woman with a lot of self confidence. I learned so much and also to be on my own and manage all situations. This is something I have had with me in my personal life and also in my working life and career.
One of the best gifts from this time is the friendship with some of my dear friends from high school. We made beautiful relationships that meant a lot to me back then and it means a lot to me after all this years since we still have contact,

Ich war letztes Jahr selbst mit STS ein Semester in den USA und war mehr als zufrieden. Vom ersten Termin an wusste ich, dass ich eine tolle Organisation gefunden hatte. Ich habe mich sowohl von der Koordinatorin hier in Österreich als auch von meinem Local Coordiantor in den USA sehr gut betreut gefühlt. Auch wenn ich bis eine Woche vor meinem Abflug auf eine Gastfamilie gewartet habe, hat es im Endeffekt perfekt gepasst sodass mir dieses Semester für immer in Erinnerung bleiben wird. Für einen Schulaufenthalt im Ausland kann ich diese Organisation nur weiterempfehlen!

From the minute on that I signed up with STS I never had anything to complain about! There was no such thing as asking too many questions and they always sent me all my information in time so that I felt really well prepared before I left! Once in the United States - I was in Louisiana, USA, for five months - my local coordinator was always there for me even though I never really “needed” her because it was going so great with my host family 🤭☺️ I’m still in touch with family, friends and even teachers from the US and I cannot wait to go back to visit them - all thanks to STS and their careful work! ❤️ I do understand that it is not easy to find good, matching host families as it’s becoming more and more popular to go abroad during school, but less and less families seem to be wanting to host. Sometimes things don’t work out - yes - as I’ve heard from exchange student friends (also from other organizations). But STS does such a good job and I wouldn’t have felt more comfortable with any other organization! Plus, I’ll keep the yellow backpack forever 🤭❤️

STS puts great emphasis on finding a well-fitting family for your child. The most important thing for a young person abroad, far off his or her own family, is not the size of a city or the notoriety of a school, it is definitely the place they live at for five or even ten months. The family members, the sisters and brothers, maybe even the pets ... Our daughter came to a wonderful family in Louisiana, U.S., and she just loved them and her time abroad! :)

Ich war selbst vor einem Jahr mit STS für ein Semester in Kanada und habe habe sehr positive Erfahrungen mit dem Service und der persönlichen Beratung und Schulsuche gemacht. Ich habe mich sehr gut aufgenommen gefühlt und meine Wünsche und Anliegen wurden immer mit viel Sorgfalt, Verständnis und sehr gewissenhaft bearbeitet. Nach meinen Erfahrungen kann ich die Organisation nur empfehlen!

My daughter had a fantastic time in the US. She enjoyed her stay there, the host family and the friends she made. It was a wonderful experience and she will have those memories forever. I feel it is also a very good sign that she is still in contact with her host mum and her siblings!