Past Tábor exchange students Eliska Tumova (left) and Honza Belada participated in the Orinda/Tábor Sister City Foundation’s cultural exchange program, which brings Czech students to Orinda and Miramonte High School for a semester- long educational and cultural experience.
The Orinda/Tábor Sister City Foundation is searching for a local family willing to host a Czech exchange student during the 2026 fall/winter semester at Miramonte High School.
The program, now entering its 26th year, is a cultural exchange program that builds friendships and understanding between the communities of Orinda and Tábor, Czech Republic. It gives exchange students the opportunity to live with an Orinda family, attend Miramonte and experience American culture firsthand while building lasting international friendships.
This year’s visiting student is “a young man very involved in soccer and tennis,” according to Bobbie Landers of the Orinda/Tábor Sister City Foundation. “He is very excited to learn the name and contact for his host family.”
The student will arrive about a week before Mats’ Day at Miramonte and return home shortly after New Year’s Day.
“Our students usually arrive the week before Matriculation Day at Miramonte,” Landers said. “That allows him to get used to living in an all-English-speaking environment.”
Host families are asked to provide a bed, desk and regular meals during the student’s stay and the student brings personal spending money for entertainment and activities.
It’s particularly helpful if host families are familiar with Miramonte High School, because they’re especially versed with the academic and social schedules – and having a student at the school is a plus.
“It is always best if we have a family with a current Miramonte student,” said Landers. “It is easier for our visiting student to become socially involved with the Miramonte student body.”
That said, Landers emphasized that having a Miramonte student at home is not required.
“It is not necessary, however,” Landers said, noting that the foundation and Miramonte counseling office help coordinate classes, activities and sports participation. “Since we have been doing this for as long as we have, the administration at Miramonte is very helpful and familiar with our program.”
Over the years, many host families have formed lifelong relationships with their exchange students.
“Eliska had saved her money to buy her own ticket to return to us in Orinda last summer ’25 and she was just leaving when Hanza Belada arrived for his six months stay in Orinda last year,” Landers said. “They were both visiting students from Tabor. Eliska is now in college, finishing her first year and again saving her money for a couple of weeks with us in Orinda this summer. As with all our students, they are very smart and fun young people to be around.”
Landers added that many families later travel to the Czech Republic to reconnect with their former students.
“The host families for many of our students in the last 26 years have traveled to Tabor to see Tabor and to visit with the students that lived with them for the six months that they were in Orinda,” she said.
According to Landers, the exchange program has an excellent track record.
“The students know the rules before they arrive,” she said. “In all these years, we have never had to send a student home.”
She said many families describe hosting as one of the most rewarding experiences they have had together.
“Most families have had an absolutely fabulous six months with their student,” said Landers, “and feel it is one of the best family things they have ever done.”
For more information about being a host family, contact Bobbie Landers 925.254.8260 or bobbielanders@yahoo.com.
