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Andeo International Homestays (or Andeo) is a non-profit organization based in Portland, Oregon. Its mission is to promote cross-cultural understanding through international exchange programs in North America, Europe, Asia, and Central and South America. 'Andeo' is neither an acronym nor an existing word; it is an invented name chosen to be easily pronounced by speakers of many languages (http://andeo.org/about.html).
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History
Andeo International Homestays was founded in 1981 as International Summerstays in Portland, Oregon. Originally, International Summerstays only offered short-term programs during the summer months. In the beginning, International Summerstays focused on European countries. In 1990, the organization started working with students groups from Asia. The list of countries International Summerstays sent outbound students to during the first two decades include Poland, the Soviet Union, Mexico, Costa Rica, and Côte d'Ivoire. In 2007, the organization changed its name to Andeo International Homestays to reflect the broader scope of programs including long-term homestays for college-age students in the United States and semester and academic year programs for high school students. Since 2008, Andeo has also provided Gap Year programs.
Current situation
In 2008, Andeo worked with ca. 1000 students coming to the Pacific Northwest and over 300 U.S. American high school students going abroad. These are relatively small numbers in comparison to other student exchange programs. Program locations include Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Costa Rica, Mexico, Peru, Ecuador and Japan.