The Clutter family typically has two students attending Charlotte Latin School. Nine times since 2017, however, the Clutter household has expanded with extra students from around the world — guests at Charlotte Latin through the school’s international exchange programs. The first time the family hosted, back when their kids were in the first and fourth grade, parent Jennifer Clutter had some trepidation. “We hadn’t taken our kids abroad yet, but we knew we wanted to someday, so we said, ‘Sure, we’ll host,’” she remembers. When she got the name of their visiting French student, she looked him up on Facebook to have an idea what to expect: “He was a 16-year-old skateboarding, rapping, smoking, drinking French boy, and I freaked out.” 

The head of the Global Studies program reassured her that all the visitors were well-vetted, so the Clutters cautiously proceeded and “we had the most lovely time,” Clutter says. “He taught my son how to skateboard. He constantly had my daughter on his shoulders. They thought they had a big brother for two weeks.”

Since then, the Clutters have hosted students from Germany, Italy, and Argentina. They bring their guests to some of Charlotte’s notable attractions, like the NASCAR Museum, but the visitors particularly enjoy the quotidian experiences of American life: tagging along to sports practices, eating Chick-fil-A, shopping at Target and Costco.

“We’ve definitely seen some cultural differences,” Clutter reports. “The Germans are much more reserved. The Argentinians are gregarious and outgoing and fun. The French, they definitely still think that they’re pretty awesome.” Not without reason, she concedes: “Everything in France is probably better.”

Some moments of international disconnection that Clutter has had to bridge: she told a student he looked handsome in a particular outfit, only to find that he didn’t know the word “handsome” and was worried that she was criticizing him. She informed a different student not to dress too warmly because the temperature was supposed to hit 80 degrees, a forecast that was much more alarming in Celsius (it’d be the equivalent of 176 Fahrenheit). “And the Europeans just wear black and white,” she reports. “In Charlotte, everybody wears a lot of color.”

The visitors have left specific cultural footprints: the Clutters now have an amazing pasta carbonara recipe and know the German word for a squirrel (“ein Eichhörnchen”). More lastingly, the family has stayed in touch with the exchange students through social media and Christmas cards, and hosted some of them (and their siblings and friends) on return visits to the States — plus they now have families around the world eager to repay their hospitality.

“I wish everybody at Latin would try it at least once,” Clutter says. “The students don’t need a ton of space — they’re not home that much anyway. And really, they’re happy to go along with whatever you’re doing.” Her bottom line: “It’s one of the best things that we’ve done at Latin.”

Global Studies is looking for Charlotte Latin families to host visitors from Argentina (January 30 through February 12, 2025) and France (April 23 through May 6, 2025). For more information, consult the Global Studies website.