One taste of pumpkin pie and Alexandra Vo was hooked. The 19-year-old international student from France who attends the University of Chicago never had tasted the traditional Thanksgiving Day treat in her life. 

“It became one of my favorite pies,” she said Thursday at the Davenport home of Randy and Cammie Pohl.

Vo is the third international student the family has hosted as part of the annual Geneseo International Thanksgiving Fellowship Program that connects international students attending college in Chicago with host families in the Quad-City region. This is the 50th year that a group based in Geneseo, Ill., has operated the program allowing those students to meet American families over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

“Instead of spending time on campus by themselves, this builds up diplomacy between two countries,” Cammie Pohl said.

Marcia Helke and her husband, Arlyn, have been involved with the program since 1972 as hosts and have coordinated it since 1978.

It is unique to Illinois and is carried out in eight areas that serve as bases for the program: Freeport, Geneseo, Morrison, Paris, Prophetstown, Rockford, Sterling-Rock Falls and Watseka. People in those areas charter buses to transport students from Chicago to their host families’ homes and back to Chicago.

Through the Helke’s area program, families from all over the Quad-Cities participate, including the Pohls.

“We always have pumpkin pie and watch the parade in the morning,” Cammie Pohl said of her family’s Thanksgiving tradition. Later, their family and Vo ate their holiday meal at the LeClaire, Iowa, home of Randy’s cousin, Jeff Brammann and his wife, Pam.

It was the Brammann’s involvement in the program that got the Pohls interested. This weekend, the Brammann’s are hosting a 35-year-old male student from Mexico.

Vo lives in the suburbs of Paris with her brother, Nicolas, 14, and her parents, who both were born in Vietnam. She is majoring in economics. She will be in the United States for one year as an exchange student before returning to college in France.

Vo said she heard about the Thanksgiving program from another international student who participated last year. “He told me I should do it,” she said.

Her first night in Davenport was spent eating out with her host family, watching television, chatting and learning how to play checkers and make brownies.

The Pohls always have hosted girls, which is good because they have three teenage daughters: Katie, 18, a freshman in college who will join the family Saturday; Karie, 17, a senior at Davenport West High School, and Kaylie, 15, a sophomore at West.

“We learn a lot about American culture through the movies,” Vo said, in addition to American television programs she grew up watching. But she knew little about the meaning behind Thanksgiving, except that it has to do with Pilgrims, she said. Cammie Pohl then filled her in.

The Pohls’ first two students were from China whom they have kept in contact with. In fact, the first student came back a month later and spent Christmas with the family. Cammie Pohl said they also have hosted international students for three days the past two summers through the program.

The Pohl girls enjoy their international sisters.

“I like to meet new people, and it is more fun when you can learn about their culture,” Karie said.

Kaylie Pohl remembers the Chinese students trying to teach her some of their native language.

“This year, I enjoy being able to speak in another language, and if I make mistakes, she can correct it,” she said of Vo. Kaylie is in her third year taking French in school.

With each student, Cammie Pohl makes a photo album of the visits and sends them to their parents in their home countries.           

She said they will have a traditional turkey dinner again today with just her family and Vo. Cammie Pohl said they also hope to take Vo to John Deere Commons in Moline and drive around viewing Christmas lights on area homes. They all plan to attend a Saturday night potluck dinner in Geneseo involving all the local host families and their guests.