Ludwig Holmström, a 17-year-old from Stockholm, Sweden, is searching for a family in the Bay Area so he can go to Paly in the 2005-2006 school year.

Potential hosts need not worry about language barriers, according to Gordon Murtaugh, a family friend who is helping to search for a family and arrange the trip. Ludwig is a fluent English speaker, according to Murtaugh, who said that all Swedish students begin learning English seriously in the third grade.

"[While talking to Ludwig] I sometimes forget that he’s Swedish," Murtaugh said.

Holmström’s interests include chess, running, and climbing. But unlike in the U.S., Swedish schools generally don’t have school-affiliated clubs or teams for students to pursue their passion. Instead, the kids are encouraged to join city-affiliated clubs and organizations.

"There’s no room for [a school] ‘track’ [team]," Murtaugh said.

According to Murtaugh, for the past few years, Holmström has trained for and participated in his city’s annual midnight 10k race held in August. Last year, he won first place in his school’s orienteering contest. Holmström has also joined the Stockholm Chess Club as a way to hone his chess skills. The chess club has mostly adult members, although Holmström still enjoys going.

Holmström’s interest in an American education began when he visited his mother’s cousin, a professor at MIT, a little over a year ago. Besides coming here for high school, he is also considering applying to an American university. Eventually, Holmström hopes to become a professor in one of the sciences.

Through an American friend from San Francisco, the family discovered that the Bay Area, and specifically Palo Alto High school, was a good place to further Holmström’s education in his areas of interest: technology, the sciences, and mathematics.

"It would be great to be near Stanford to find out what it’s like," Holmström said.

As for the kind of family that he is searching for, he would like one with a student around his age, although he doesn’t care about the gender of the student.

"Ludwig is easy-going by nature and would like to find a family who would match his own energy and personality," Ludwig’s mom, Agneta Holmström, said.

To make sure that the family is a good fit, Ludwig will be coming to Palo Alto during the summer to meet them, added Agneta Holmström.

Interested families should contact Murtaugh by July 1 via his email address, [email protected], or phone number, (415) 378-7308.

"I think it would be great to make new American friends and to let other people know what it’s like to be Swedish," Holmström said.