In the sixteen years since her family first hosted an exchange student, Anita from Hong Kong in 2010, more than twenty-five young people have called her home theirs. Many of them, she says, call her “Mom.”
Minttu’s volunteering began with hearing about another household’s great experience. A friend had hosted a German exchange student, and the Auvinens, inspired by what they saw, applied to host through AFS themselves. “We never planned to host more than twenty exchange students,” Minttu says. “It simply happened, one year at a time. One exchange student came, then another, and little by little it became a very important part of our family life.”
“Students have since come from Germany, Italy, the Dominican Republic, and beyond”, Minttu shares. Minttu has also seen the life of an AFS exchange from the other side: one of her own children spent a year abroad in South Africa, making her, for a year, the parent waiting at home. “That experience helped me understand even better what an exchange means for both the young person and their family,” she says.
“Hosting an exchange student can make you look at your own routines and assumptions in a new way… you can change, learn and grow too.”
Family, not guests
In the Auvinen home, exchange students have never been treated as visitors passing through. They’re present at weddings, birthdays and funerals, just as any other family member. “They have learned to cook and clean, worked in the garden, gone ice swimming with us, learned sewing and knitting.” Minttu’s own children, she and her family have noted, grew sharper language skills and a wider view of the world for having grown up with a multi-cultural rotating cast of siblings.
Almost all of the students have stayed in touch. Most have come back to visit years later. Minttu and her husband, Antti, have traveled to visit two former students in their home countries, and one has since moved permanently to Finland, where they remain in close contact.
Minttu describes hosting as something that rewired how she relates to the news. “When I hear about a tsunami in Japan, a terrorist attack in Nice, a disaster in Thailand or something else happening somewhere in the world, I no longer think about it as something happening to unknown people far away,” she says. “My first thought often is: ‘I wonder how the people I know there are doing.’”
Recognition, twice over
In 2023, Minttu and Antti were named winners of AFS Intercultural Program’s Peggy and Art Howe Award, which honors the outstanding service of AFS volunteer host families.
The recognition didn’t stop there. In 2026, Minttu received the Order of the White Rose of Finland, awarded by the President of Finland on Mother’s Day, a medal arranged, without her knowledge, by her eldest child. She was moved to tears opening the letter. When she was interviewed for the award and asked if she felt she deserved it, she admitted, “I’ve made mistakes as a mother, and am no ‘supermom’.” Her philosophy, as she put it, “an ordinary mother is enough”.
For more than ten years, Minttu has also worked as a vocational coach for young people navigating rehabilitative employment. Her work is led by her experience learned through hosting. She worries about the pressure young people face to excel at everything. Her approach is to help each person and find what they’re already good at. She holds space for the fact that real change doesn’t always happen on a three- or six-month timeline. Some of the young people she coaches call her “Mom,” too.
What she would tell a young person today
“Go with curiosity, not with expectations,” Minttu says. “You may think you are going abroad to discover another country, but you may come home having discovered something new about other people, the world — and yourself.” Her advice circles back to something simple: don’t spend an exchange comparing. “Most importantly, get to know the people, not just the culture. A culture is not only its food, traditions or customs. It is the people you meet, the relationships you build and the stories you share.”
Host families are the bedrock of AFS. Homes welcome students as family members and experiencing global learning at home. With flexible program durations ranging from a trimester to a full school year, families can choose how to build lifelong global bonds.
Contact your local AFS to become a host family today!