STS Education Avaliações 

My experience in the US with STS was great. I had an amazing family with who I'm still in contact. My American parents really made me feel part of their family treating me as if I was their son. During this the period abroad and before STS was very supportive at organizational level as well as at emotional level before leaving and during the first period in the US that is often the hardest one.

Nostra figlia L.R. a settembre 2022 ha deciso di fare un esperienza in USA x un anno scolastico si è rivolta a STS che ci hanno assistiti in tutte le fasi di documentazione e preparazione del viaggio
Arrivata a NY ha trovato un camp attrezzato con persone che hanno aiutato L.R. a conoscere le bellezze della città a fare nuove amicizie ed aiutarla nella partenza verso la destinazione finale nella sua nuova famiglia.
Consigliamo vivamente a chi vuole affrontare un esperienza simile di affidarsi a STS

Fate troppo schifo, sono felice che abbiate fallito. Ormai sono passati anni dalla mia esperienza all'estero, ne avevo 16 e ora 24. Non ho mai esternato i miei traumi relativi al mio periodo in Australia perché il mio obiettivo primario era dimenticare e andare avanti, ma ad anni di distanza ho la forza di dirvi quanto pena facciate. Avete a che fare con dei minorenni lontani dalle loro famiglie e li trattate come pacchi, come seccature e soprattutto come macchine sputa soldi. Solo dopo ho realizzato il vostro giochetto, ma per fortuna il destino ha fatto il suo corso e vi ha dato la punizione che meritavate. Che dire, i soldi che avete rubato sono già un buon motivo per schifarvi, ma più di tutto la vostra negligenza e palese incapacità psico-pedagogica. Non entro nei dettagli di ciò che ho vissuto in quel viaggio perché mi provoca davvero del dolore fisico, ma dico solo che se STS avesse fatto il proprio lavoro, tante cose non sarebbero mai accadute. Fate vomitare, falliti poveracci

Our daughter supposed to go to the USA. We fulfil all the requirements, expend a lot of money on the vaccines, visa, etc. until suddenly, a month before the expected departure, they told us that we needed to sign a paper where we accepted that our daughter may not be accepted anymore, due one of her grades. We needed to push for an update all the time, until the deadline the 31st of August, where they told us that STS did not manage to find a place for her, and the only option was a private school with a significally additional cost. Still her departure to the USA would be too late for the welcome trip in New York.

Same day they gave us another options in other counties and we had 1 day to decide where. In a hurry we decided Costa Rica and needed to wait additional couple of days for information of the host family and the first communication with the host mom was just 2 days before her departure. no time at all, to learn more about them.
It seems that STS is underman. STS did not had the capacity to handle all the students they said yes to, in the beginning.
Sad that we did not investigate STS, before we sign our daughter up with STS.

Sprog- og fodboldrejse sommeren 2022 - en konfirmationsgave til vores søn. 14 dage, hvor de kun så en STS rejseleder én gang, 14 dage på et campus, som man ikke måtte bevæge sig ud af. Når de gik i seng om aftenen kl. 22 blev nøgler og mobiltelefoner taget, så de ikke kunne forlade deres værelse (døren smækkede). Den lovede sightseeing blev aflyst “grundet corona” - hvor de unge mennesker i øvrigt sad en hel lørdag på værelset uden kontakt og ordentlig mad, fordi en anden elev havde testet positiv. De andre uden symptomer blev testet og skulle lige vente på svar (kviktest) inden de skulle på tur, og kunne så ellers sidde tilbage hele den lørdag og vente på svar, om de også var smittet og skulle sendes hjem trods ingen restriktioner. Sightseeing blev så sent på dagen (fordi vi forældre reagerede hjemmefra), at de havde 1,5 time til at se et shoppingcenter inkl. at spise aftensmad. Resten af London så de fra bus eller båd. Tilbragte 14 dage i London uden at få indblik i den engelske kultur, mad osv. Fodboldcampen kunne lige så godt have foregået i København… De måtte kun kommunikere med dem fra egen gang på campus, hvor er meningen med sprogrejsen i det?? Måtte ikke hænge ud i hallen sammen efter måltider, men skulle blive siddende ved bordet i en time. Trods fodboldtræning i 35 grader hver formiddag, måtte de først gå i bad om aftenen, selvom eftermiddagen skulle bruges på sprogskole. Alt var med strikse og rigide kostskoleregler. Blev bedt om at hæve depositum ved ankomst, det blev så tilbagebetalt i kontanter, som så måtte snoldes i lufthavnen, da det ikke kan betale sig at veksle om.
Alt i alt en kæmpe skuffelse! Vi har i øvrigt aldrig fået respons fra STS, da vi kontaktede dem undervejs i sprogrejsen. De sendte en sur rejseleder ud, som skældte drengene ud over, at de var utilfredse og tog dem kortvarigt med på den tur, som vi havde ønsket pengene retur for.

Rejs IKKE med STS på udveksling.
Vi har lige hentet vores søn hjem fra udveksling efter 1 uge hos en familie som var under alt kritik. Han havde glædet sig til at være i USA i 10 mdr. og gå på highschool, men forholdene i familien var yderst kritisable.
Der var beskidt over alt med tis på gulvene fra hunde og katte. Der var 2 små børn på hhv. 1 og 2 år i pleje som primært skulle passes af deres 2 adoptivbørn på 8 år. De 2 små drenge på 8 år skulle også passe de små om natten og sørge for det huslige arbejde. Der var ingen mad i huset og kun Junkfood til aftensmad.
Vores søn har ikke fået morgenmad eller frokost og der var ikke noget mad i huset, som han kunne spise, så det har været en meget lang uge. Der var konstant barnegråd af ulykkelige børn og forældrene sov hele tiden pga nattevagter.
Det er utrolig så dårlige STS er til at udvælge værtsfamilier og utrolig så dårligt de behandler deres studerende. De er bare fuldstændig ligeglade med hvor de studerende skal bo og kommunikationen med organisationen er bare så mangelfuld og besværlig.
Vi er dybt skuffede over STS ikke har gjort sig umage med at finde en ordentlig værtsfamilie og vi er meget undrende over hvilke kriterier de udvælger deres familier ud fra.
Så skån Jer selv for skuffelsen og rejs stedet med et andet selskab som forhåbentlig kan tilbyde noget bedre.

Jeg var 14 da jeg rejste på STS sprogrejser. Næsten alt gik galt.

Da vi ankom til England var der ingen til at hente os 5 danske piger. Vi endte med at køre med en STS bus der skulle et helt andet sted hen. Det var et kaos. Vi blev sat af på halvvejen og fik et nyt lift til Hastings. Da vi ankom var der heller ikke nogen til at hente os og køre os ud til vores hosts. Da vi var flere timer forsinket. Vi ventede meget længe før der blev arrangeret en Taxa til os.

Der var ingen af de tryghedsting der var lovet som blev holdt. Vi skulle have en dansk guide. Vi fik en fransk. Så selvom jeg havde svært ved at forstå britisk engelsk var det helt umuligt at forstå hende med fransk accent oveni.
Vi skulle også have en dansk og en engelsk lære til at undervise os. Vi fik to engelske. Så det var meget svært at stille spørgmål og næsten umuligt at få hjælp. Faktisk følte vi os meget fortabte da der var ingen voksne til at forstå os. Vi var henholdsvis 13, 14, 14, 14 og 15 år. 4 af os havde bedt om at få en dansk roomate for tryghed og støtte. Men kun de to af os blev sat sammen. De andre havde ingen at tale dansk med når de var hjemme.

Vi følte os meget overladt til os selv.

Et par år senere modtager min famillie og jeg en udvekslingsstuderende igennem STS. Hun skulle bo hos os et år og gå på gymnasiet. I løbet af det år mødes hende og andre STS studerende 2 gange og modtager undervisning.

Efter året ende taler hendes far med mine forældre om hvor meget de blev betalt for måske hun gerne ville blive et år mere. Faren bliver chokeret over at vi intet har modtaget, da han har betalt et kæmpestort beløb til STS.

Be extremely careful when dealing with this organisation. I recently had a terrible experience with this organisation as an exchange student. So here is my story.

First off it began with me wishing to go to London to study my year abroad. Instead they located me to small town four hours from London. When preserved to ask sts about this they said that there was nothing they could do and that I had to “make the best of what I had” , and yeah I asked if I could get a refund , which of course they refused. Still this was far from the worst encounter I had in England. Plus they extremely hard to contact and they even ghosted you if you called them to much.

The worst experienced I had was with the host family. So to make a long story short the family was money hungry and clearly did not care for me. The first time I meet they were really reserved and refused to show me special place ( the special place was in town and I was supposed to go there to meet the college). However that was far from the worst. So it began with the mother constantly complaining about me making noises and “bangs”. Now I can understand if the noises I made was loud. However the problem was that this house was extremely poorly sound isolated printing a person to hear the tinniest of noice in the house. So basically the mom would freak and constantly complain about my noice when was doing my daily habits( ps I’m an extremely paranoid person and the first encounter prompt me to sneak every time I moved). She would yell me constantly for this and also depicted me as somekind of monster for sts. What the sts do? Well, there response was to contact my mother and telling her that the family was on edge of kicking me out. Anyway the family problem became so bad that the representetive placed me in another family for last 3 months ( ps the last family was great).

I still feel like I would have rather not spend this money even after 4 months. Cause believe me this whole experience was a nightmare for both me and my family. I hope this review will make you think extra carefully when choosing start . The last thing is that another student have to experience the same horrible experience as I did.

We just recently wanted to send our son to study in Vienna. We has a quite negative experience with STS. They claim to find what we wanted, but then they send you to a village 100km away from the desired place. Also they tell you a price and then ask for double the amount. We do not recommend this service, since you ara paying for nothing. They family your child stays with does not get paid.

Sebbene causa Covid mio figlio non sia riuscito a partire con un Visto J-1, ho trovato nella persona di Marika un interlocutore serio, preparato e sempre disponibile alle mille domande che un genitore o uno studente possono porsi prima di iniziare una simile avventura, alla scadenza della data ultima per la partenza, non volendo cambiare destinazione (nel nostro caso gli USA), è stato avviato l'iter per il rimborso di quanto versato e dopo circa una settimana ci sono stati restituiti tutti i soldi versati. Bravi e mi sento di consigliarla a chiunque voglia intraprendere una simile esperienza. Grazie

Jeg venter stadig på at få mine penge retur fra STS, eftersom de har aflyst den sprogskole min datter skulle på. Jeg har rykket tre gange nu og hver gang skal jeg uploade dokumentation. Utroværdig at STS ikke har styr på deres opkrævninger. Vil ikke vælge STS til næste år når der viser sig at være så besværligt.

I forbindelse med STS´s Danmark konkurs den 31.08.2020 fik jeg en Voucher (gældende i 2 år)De nye ejere af STS skriver, at det desværre ikke er muligt at sende elever på Sprogrejse i sommer 2021. Det vil sige, at jeg KUN har sommer 2020 at bruge en Voucher på kr. 115.000??????
Er der mulighed for forlængelse, så den er gældende i 3 år? Eller hvordan står vi stillet? Det er jo ærgerligt, at nu vi har en datter og en søn som gerne vil afsted på sprogrejse i et par år i træk og så ikke kan nå at få glæde af pengene. Vi forventer at voucherén kan bruges til alle udgifter i forbindelse med sprogrejsen, så eleverne kun skal have lommepenge med. Er dette korrekt? Til sidst vil jeg spørge, om det er muligt at få en oversigt over de personer som har fået en voucher, så kan nogle elever lære hinanden at kende inden afrejse (dem der skal til samme destination).
På forhånd tak.

We had a horrible experience with this organization. Our daughter of 17 was going to the US for a year of exchange. We were told by the Dutch organization to write a letter as student and as parents so the US organization could find a perfect match for our daughter. They were very adamant about these letters. They told us to give it a lot of attention as these letters would be the information on which the organization would find families where your child could be placed. What a fraud. The organization does not look at the letters and I sincerely doubt they properly read them. This organization is all about money and finding host families, but not about the wellbeing of your child and finding the best fit. Our daughter had written she was a free spirit, creative, adventurous, sporty person and took people for who they are. She was placed with a family with strict religious beliefs that was far from adventurous. Religion played a huge role in their lives while our daughter is not religious. Any discussion they had about things in life was often shut with 'because it is in the Bible and that is the truth'... They had zero common grounds. We do not blame the family so much but we do resent the fact that they did not back up our daughter when she indicated she was not happy and wanted to switch families (we suspect because it looks like losing face in church). When she indicated 2 months later to the organization and her coordinator, that she really wasn't feeling at home within that family (but she found it hard to tell the family because she didn't want to hurt their feelings), she was told she had to try harder and that it was not possible or very hard to switch families.
Also at school, the school counselor promised her to get her in contact with people of her own age to make friends (as with Corona they had limited classes and most of the time the students were younger than she was). Every time our daughter reached out to her to see when she could get the info, she came up with an excuse. Even the host mother said to us parents on the phone that this counselor was totally worthless. So no help at school, nor at home. Due to Corona things were difficult and more challenging of course but the organization did absolutely nothing, they only put her down and went behind her back. For example, her host mother would mention things to her that our daughter had discussed in private with the coordinator trusting her it to be between them two. So she felt betrayed and didn't feel safe anymore. After 6 more weeks, right before Christmas our daughter had hit rock bottom and really said she wanted to leave the family, that this was a toxic environment for her. Another family with different values would be a much better fit. Well, the organization did everything to convince her to go home, that switching families would be almost impossible (although that is always a possibility they say in their promotion). They had different conversations with her (she recorded them all) and manipulation got a new meaning to me as a mother.
Instead of helping her find a better matching family they suddenly send her a socalled 'recommendation letter' with recommendations that she should follow because if she could not comply, there could be a chance she had to be put on probation, like a criminal. It was clearly an attempt from the organization to get rid of her. One of things in the 'recommendation letter' was: 'encouraging others to watch programs with a violent content'. What had she done? She had spoken with her host brother about TV Series and she recommended Game of Thrones (16+). Her host brother was 19 at the time. This happened in September 2020, she got the letter right before Christmas. They were clearly looking for excuses to get rid of her.
We, as very worried parents, reached out to Ellen Hoggard, CEO of this company. We saw no other possibility. We had reached out to the host family (they were not allowed to talk with us), to the coordinator (she said she could not have contact with us) before so this was the last thing we could do.
We got no response, we were totally ignored. Shortly after that (a few days later), she got a probation letter because she accidently made a little whole in a sheet when she wanted to light a little candle (with protection glass) and a small spark of the match got onto her sheet. She bought the family a new sheet but she was set on probation with the text: 'unsafe use of flammable materials'. They urged our daughter to sign this letters which she refused and rightfully so. Our daughter came back 5 months earlier as this organisation is cleary not about helping children, but about money. No communication, they refuse to communicate so as parents there is not much you can do. They manipulate your child to an extent that it is abusive in my eyes. Be careful!

Diffidate di questa società, hanno dichiarato fallimento subito dopo aver recuperato tutto il denaro possibile da parte dei clienti privati e di enti pubblici.
Hanno infranto il sogno di centinaia di ragazzi!!!

Un sogno americano svanito a causa di STS che a 3 mesi dalla partenza, con la pratica completata, e una prima quota giá versata, ha comunicato il proprio fallimento. Non ci sono parole per descrivere l'amarezza di mia figlia e dei suoi compagni di sventura; i soldi di tante famiglie andati in fumo.Che delusione!

Nothing idealistic about this organization. All this talk about carefully matching host parents with student profiles and putting your child’s well-being as their top priority is far from the truth.
I am sure that most students will have the time of their lives, but when things go less smoothly for whatever reason the organization is not there for your child and especially not for the parents at home.
For us there was simply no way to communicate with the organization in the US. No response whatsoever on our emails and chats in which we expressed our concerns about the situation that our daughter was in.
I don’t go into details about that, but I just want to warn to look past the wonderful experience talk and be aware that the US organization do want to deal with issues between your child and the host parents. For them the priority lies completely with having host families available the next year.

I went on an exchange with STS a several years ago and had a mixed experience. I wanted to let people know about the support they will receive as a customer.

Note, I had my exchange year in France.

Firstly, my high school experience was very nice. The teachers and staff were friendly and I made friends, they were helpful and sweet people. No problems there.

The problems lie with the organisation in your destination country and the (lack of) support you receive as a student. My first host family had personal issues that no longer allowed them to keep me on for the year financially. That's fine. My second host family had a native English speaker as the host mother of which I wasn't very happy with because I was there to learn French and it seemed that her motive for hosting an exchange student was to use them as an English teacher and a babysitter for her young kids. She was also uncommunicative - towards the end of my stay, it seemed that she had some beef with me, but instead of telling me about it, she called STS in France, who called me and explained to me that I needed to thank my host parents more often. I admit that I didn't say thank you a lot, however, I expressed my gratitude for their hospitality in other ways that including helping out around the house, cleaning up after her kids in the kitchen every morning, etc. Evidently, my thank you language didn't come through very clearly.

With a hostile environment, I made the decision to return home after 10 months which surprisingly, surprised my host mother (the native English speaker who disliked me for reasons she didn't explain to me). After I returned home, not long after, she sent an abusive email to me, berating me for not keeping in touch and that they had hosted a boy from her native country for the summer who was a much more pleasant experience, and that they would NEVER host a student for a year ever again. Did she really want me to keep in touch? After the way she treated me? She even said during our last lunch together to her family, "Who knows what she'll say about us?" (to my family, which if you've done nothing wrong, you would have nothing to worry about).

I forwarded her email to STS and her husband. STS did not sympathise me at all, just mentioned that they remember there were some issues with my host family (HER issues, mind you. Who was there to support me when I had issues with a hostile host mother?) and that they would pass it onto STS France. Her husband tried to placate me, and said that his wife could be a bit direct which sounded like an excuse and not an apology.

Would not recommend STS at all. They are there for your money and the host parents. Not for the student in a foreign country, vulnerable to everything.

Il mio semestre in Canada è stato spettacolare, sia emotivamente sia dal punto di vista delle esperienze. Sono cresciuta, ho conosciuto persone meravigliose e passato momenti indimenticabili, lo rifarei tutto da capo infinite volte. Mi sono trovata benissimo con STS, grazie per avermi permesso di vivere quest'avventura.

STS Danmark er under konkursbehandling. Det er nok derfor de ikke svarer.
Se evt statstidende