Dinner Hosting for Global Leadership Exchange Participants
Dinner Hosting offers visiting professionals from around the world the opportunity to spend a casual evening in the home of a Seattle-area community member. We are proud of the involvement of our volunteers and the important role they play as citizen diplomats. Volunteer hosts include all types - some with large homes and some with apartments and roommates. We encourage diversity! Through this opportunity, international visitors learn about the Puget Sound community, get a glimpse of day-to-day life, and come away with lifelong friends. Hosts have the opportunity to make international friends and learn about other cultures and global issues right in their own homes.
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This is a volunteer opportunity for local community members to provide a casual dinner in their home for international visitors hosted by the World Affairs Council. This opportunity is a highlight for our visitors and is a wonderful way to meet amazing people from around the world. Feel free to invite friends and keep the meal simple.
We welcome hundreds of international participants to Seattle on various professional exchange programs sponsored primarily by the State Department and occasionally by private sector partners. These international visitors are emerging global leaders from around the world in a wide variety of sectors and have been competitively selected or nominated for participation in these exchange programs. While in Seattle, visitors usually stay in hotels, so the chance to meet with locals over dinner in their home is an especially important and highly enjoyable part of their program in the United States.
Volunteers provide a casual dinner for a small group of visitors. Visitors will be staying in a downtown hotel and can take a taxi/Uber/Lyft to your home for dinner, or you can provide transportation. We let you know available dates, and you decide how many guests you can host and what time you'd like for them to arrive or what time you'd like to pick them up. If the guests are not fluent in English, interpreters will accompany each group to dinner and will be included in the number of guests each volunteer can host.
You'll receive information about your guests, including their professional background, the purpose of their trip to Seattle, and any dietary restrictions. We also assist with organizing pick up logistics from the downtown hotel where they are staying and provide point of contact information for someone with the group at the hotel.