You have many options when it comes to choosing an exchange program for your child and your family. Adolesco has a unique background and offers a special kind of exchange – here we’d like to tell you more about our history, our philosophy, and our goals.
Adolesco is built on decades of experience in long-term, family-centered foreign exchanges for children. Two of Adolesco’s co-founders, Jacques Pinault and his late wife, Katherine, created En Famille International in 1978. They and their team at En Famille initiated and nurtured thousands of year-long language immersion exchanges (six months travel for each child). The very first child to do an En Famille exchange was Xavier Racinais, who went to the UK from France at age nine, over 30 years ago.
In 2011, Xavier and his wife Florence set out with Jacques and Katherine to create Adolesco, in order to offer a shorter version of the same amazing exchange experience to new children and families.
Today, Adolesco is a network of representatives in the USA, UK, Ireland, Canada, Germany, Spain, and France, as well as many hundreds of participating parents and children, all working together to create life-changing opportunities for children and families around the world.
“Right from the beginning, after the first long-term exchange, we saw that the linguistic results were remarkable but that the human side of the adventure was even more astonishing!
It is our aim to create friendships between different countries and cultures, a friendship between two children and their families. To us this is the most important part, because after the friendship has begun, the linguistic benefits will come quite naturally.”
– Jacques Pinault; Adolesco co-founder
Adolesco is a small non-profit made up of dedicated representatives and volunteers who wholeheartedly believe that linguistic and cultural exchanges offer participating children and families extraordinary benefits. We’re not making profits for shareholders, our goal is to help your child grow and realize their full potential.
“Adolesco has been a wonderful experience for us: I sent my “baby” on exchange (my daughter was 13) and got a confident, poised, and self-assured young lady in return!”
-Kay Watson, Denver