<p>Daughter has received and accepted her appointment for class of 2012. We have a friend of the family that lives in the area that she would like to be her sponser family (no military affiliation). Have a question about sponser families? Do they have to meet any specific requirements or register with the school?</p>
<p>At some point, the Academy will contact you about sponsor families and will ask if there's anyone in particular that you'd like to request. Just provide USAFA with their contact info and they should take care of the rest. There are a few requirements that the family will have to meet, but they're generally only for keeping the crazies away. Almost any normal family would be qualified.</p>
<p>How do they choose your sponsor family if you don't know anyone? Religion? Hometown? Sport? I can't even guess, other than it's like matching a civilian college roommate.</p>
<p>i think it said in an email we got that if you wanna be paired with a specific person, write their name on a line and make sure they contact the school and sign up</p>
<p>fencersmother-- they had us rank the things that were most important to us.. religion, hobbies, state, race, and some others... and we'd be placed (hopefully) with the best match as to what you indicated..</p>
<p>there is an application process for sponsor families. AFA does a lot of review to approve them. </p>
<p>From the USAFA web page:<br>
CADET SPONSOR PROGRAM
A program of the USAFA 34TRW Cadet Services; 333-2727 or 333-3477; 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.</p>
<p>if the links don't work, go to the <a href="http://www.usafa.edu%5B/url%5D">www.usafa.edu</a> page and on the right side is a link for sponsor programs. Click it and work your way through it for more info. My understanding is that families undergo a thorough review before AFA approves them. We had a relative apply and in the end my D was assigned a different sponsor. Don't know why but we love her sponsor family and she can see the other family easily too so it was no loss. I think they were a few miles outside of the allowed area. I know they had to apply and provide multiple references etc... They were not military - and neither is the family she ended up with. Her sponsor family also mentioned the application process was significant. </p>
<p>If you don't have a specific family to select (or your family is not approved) they pair the cadet with a family. I understand there is a mileage limit of something like 25 miles from AFA (don't quote me on that, I know there is a limit but am not sure what it is).</p>
<p>RifleGirlsDad</p>
<p>Your daughter can visit the friends, they do not need to be her sponsor. Let the Academy match her with one. Part of the point behind the sponsor program is to spend time with others in the military. When several of ours came over a few years back, stressed out about being on probation, my husband was able to calm them - he is a grad and he has taught there. It is also an advantage to have an ID card holder as a sponsor - we have had to take cadets on uniform runs to Peterson.
Sponsors love their cadets. Our kids love our cadets. We have had 7 - we know other sponsors who have had dozens. If your daughter doesn't click with her sponsor she can trade them in and get assigned another one. If she has a friend with a great one, she can ask if they will take her on. Our cadets friends were always welcome.
What did we do with our cadets? Anything they wanted. At first they can only come for a few hours and they usually wanted to sleep. Later in the year they could stay for entire weekends. This would include runs to movies, Whole Foods, Panera, the mall, church, mini golf, REI... They will do as much or as little in the house as we want. They are advised to help out (maybe cooking, dishes?) but we didn't expect that. We have also taken them to the airport - C Springs and DIA. Picking up cadets at DIA after a holiday is a blast. I have gone to pick up one cadet and ended up with a car full. You can stand in a sea of cadets, call out "who needs a ride?" and there they all are. Our only negative cadet experience was one with helicopter parents. And, he did not graduate last year with his class. Don't let this be you!
What I am trying to say is don't worry about it. It's an excellent program - we have been involved for over 10 years. All you have to do nothing. Let you daughter fill out the form and relax. We take care of our own.</p>