AFS Intercultural Programs, Inc., is an international, voluntary, non-governmental, non-profit organization that provides intercultural learning opportunities to help people develop the knowledge, skills and understanding needed to create a more just and peaceful world.

The core of any machine is its intricate network of cogs and wheels, which tirelessly rotate to keep the machine running. The AFS machine is powered primarily by volunteers, with support from AFS Partner organizations and their staffs. Which role is best for you? Here's a rundown on voluntary AFS "parts":

Volunteers: Volunteers are the lifeblood of AFS. After all, it was World War I volunteer ambulance drivers who first conceived of AFS back in 1914. Since then, AFS has evolved into one of the world's largest international community-based volunteer organizations. Through volunteers, AFS transforms the lives of young people, inspiring them to explore new dimensions of global philosophy and service. For every one AFS staff member, there are 200 volunteers, most of whom can be found working with participants in communities around the world, advancing the adage "Think globally, act locally." AFS volunteers also play important leadership roles, serving on AFS national boards of directors.

Participants: AFS is an adventure in learning that lasts far beyond the exchange experience itself. By living with a host family and attending school in another culture, AFS participants come to appreciate differences and realize connections with their global neighbors and share their knowledge with others in their home communities. "Participants" can be defined as high school students, educators, school administrators or anyone taking part in an AFS program.

Host Families: A host family can be a single parent, a childless couple or two parents with children already living at home. Families applying to host an AFS student indicate their preference as to a boy or girl and nationality, and AFS will try to place a student whose profile is compatible with family's. Hosting an AFS student provides two-way interactions that vibrantly bring to life the culture of a far-away land, perhaps seen before only through the distant, impersonal headlines of a newspaper. Families are not paid. They are expected to supply love, moral support, comfort and basic needs for their hosted student, just as they would for their own children. Students bring their own spending money, and their clothing and medical expenses (in most cases) already are covered. The student's natural parents remain the legal guardians throughout the exchange experience, while AFS looks after the student's general welfare. The host parent(s) is responsible for the student's well-being on a day-to-day basis. Both families and students are supported by the local AFS volunteer committees, which provide orientations, meetings and social functions throughout the year.

Host Schools: In secondary schools around the world, the presence of AFS students is valued by administrators, educators and fellow students. Increasingly, educators understand that there exists an element of intercultural learning for all their students when they have an AFS participant in their classroom. AFS students come to be viewed as resources and contributors to the classroom environment. While they are not required to do so, many AFS participating schools contribute extracurricular fees, field trip costs, workbooks and other educational expenses for their AFS students.

An American In Paris

More than 75 years ago, shortly after the outbreak of World War I, a group of 15 Americans living in Paris volunteered to drive ambulances for the American Hospital there. This group eventually became known as the American Field Service, whose mission was to transport wounded French soldiers from the front lines to mobile medical units. By the end of the war, their number had grown to 2,500 volunteer ambulance drivers. They did not bear arms. Theirs was a mission of compassion, not conflict.

During World War II, the American Field Service's all-civilian volunteer force was stationed in Europe, Syria, North Africa, India and Burma. When the war ended in 1945, AFS volunteers pledged not to abandon their tradition of international service. Compelled to hasten the post-war healing process, they vowed to work toward changing the world's focus from hostility to friendship.

These founders of AFS had an idea that was stunning in its simplicity: If future generations could empathize with and understand their global neighbors, recognizing and appreciating their differences, then perhaps future wars could be avoided.

They began their exchange program modestly in 1947, bringing 51 high school students from 10 countries to the United States for a year-long exchange experience. To then later involve students from such "enemy" nations as Japan and Germany so soon after the war was a daring idea.

Today more than 250,000 participants have taken part in cultural exchanges offered through AFS Intercultural Programs, Inc., the organization formed in 1947 to facilitate student and teacher exchanges -- the realization of the vision of its predecessor, the American Field Service ambulance corps. Just as important, an equal number of host families have opened their hearts and homes to an AFS student, and more than 100,000 volunteers all over the world have generously donated their time and energy to ensure that the programs succeed.

At this very moment, AFS students are learning to understand and speak more than 40 languages. Even more important, they are becoming fluent in the language of tolerance. A humble idea born from the ashes of war, AFS today, with offices in 55 countries, is a preeminent leader in the field of international citizen cultural exchange.

Core Values:

AFS enables people to act as responsible global citizens working for peace and understanding in a diverse world. It acknowledges that peace is a dynamic concept threatened by injustice, inequity and intolerance.

AFS seeks to affirm faith in the dignity and worth of every human being and of all nations and cultures. It encourages respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms without distinction as to race, sex, language, religion or social status.

AFS activities are based on our core values of dignity, respect for differences, harmony, sensitivity and tolerance.

AFS Learning Objectives:

AFS is committed to intercultural learning. Learning through an AFS experience involves growth and change in terms of...

Personal Values and Skills:  At the core of all AFS experiences is the removal of people from their familiar environment and their placement in a new environment. In such unusual circumstances, participants are confronted repeatedly with crises of varying dimensions. They must make judgments and act without familiar cues. But AFS participants are prepared in advance, and they are assured of support and guidance on an as-needed basis, thus enabling them to turn these crises into opportunities for reassessing their values, stretching their capabilities and practicing new skills. 

Interpersonal Relationship-Building:  Every AFS participant becomes fully involved in daily living and working arrangements with a variety of people in the new environment. This requires developing and maintaining relationships with others from diverse backgrounds. The interpersonal skills developed in this intercultural context are transferable to many other settings during the participant's lifetime. Host nationals often gain reciprocal benefits from their contacts with AFS participants. 

Intercultural Knowledge and Sensitivity:  During the course of their immersion in the host culture, AFS participants are exposed to innumerable dimensions of that culture, ranging from the simple acquisition of daily necessities to the complex and subtle distinctions made by hosts among alternative values, social norms and patterns of thought. In addition, most AFS exchanges include a formal learning component in which host nationals explain the social, political, economic and religious structures of their countries. In the case of exchanges involving adult professionals, hosts and visitors both gain new skills and alternative concepts, leading to a sharpening of their talents. Involvement in so many dimensions of life deepens participants' insights into their home culture as well as their knowledge of their host culture from the perspective of an outsider. 

Awareness About Global Issues:  Living in a place other than one's home community often helps one recognize that the world is one large community, a global island, in which certain problems are shared by everyone everywhere. AFS participants empathize with their hosts' perspective on some of these problems and, thus, appreciate that workable solutions must be culturally sensitive, not merely technologically feasible. Such awareness prepares the AFS participant to take his or her place among those addressing crises facing humankind. 

AFS Global Education Framework:

Global education addresses the whole range of concerns that people of the world share. It is mission-driven education that promotes a common commitment to the world and its people. 

Five-Point Framework: 

Focus on Intercultural Learning:  Intercultural learning is a special type of experiential learning because it focuses on the mindset of the people involved and forces them to change their perspective through cross-cultural empathy. This is a highly emotional learning experience that requires support and mediation in order to achieve desired results. 

Focus on Communities:  While continuing to appreciate the value of each individual, AFS recognizes that people are more than individuals; they belong to communities, and, therefore, we need to involve the various communities from which these individuals come and reach into new communities that have not yet been touched by the educational benefits of AFS. When AFS works with schools and communities, it multiplies its potential impact. AFS cannot have a global impact unless its participants act together and act locally. 

Focus on Service and Commitment:  In helping the war wounded on both sides of the battlefield, the American Field Service ambulance drivers who began our organization demonstrated their commitment to the core AFS values, including the respect for the worth and dignity of all people, regardless of nationality. The "S" in AFS continues to stand for Service. Global citizens contribute to the world through their service to the community, to others, to the environment and to the world. AFS organizations continue to make new efforts to become involved in meaningful volunteer service. 

Focus on Integration and Post-Return:  In many respects, what happens after an AFS program is what really matters. An AFS program should not be an isolated incident in a person's life. The application of cultural lessons learned to one's daily life in one's local community is AFS's goal and challenge. Therefore, it is important to support and maximize the integration of the knowledge attained through AFS programs. To reinforce new knowledge, AFS endorses the practice of post-return integration in addition to the standard pre-departure and mid-experience orientations. Returning program participants are our natural constituents and a link between AFS and their own communities. By working with participants in the post-return phase, we help them take advantage of the special knowledge and new skills they possess as they encounter new learning opportunities and build bridges between cultures at home. 

Focus on Action and Changing Behavior:  We can become aware of global issues by studying them, but AFS promotes more than intellectual awareness. The intercultural learning method employed in AFS programs is experiential and active learning by doing. Our participants do not just watch, read or listen. They participate in other cultures, form relationships with other people and give service to other communities. Through these actions, they demonstrate that learning. 

The critical part of any AFS global education package is a unified approach, grounded in the Global Education Framework and involving the school as the primary participant, with a broader educational impact that reaches those who never have the opportunity to leave their own communities. The method should be to involve everyone in the school and community in the exchange experience, not just the individual students or teachers and the families who host them.

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