Returnees on the Rise

AFS is highlighting young Returnees who are making a difference after studying abroad with AFS.

We recently caught up with Natasha Araya-Schraner, a Returnee (2006 France Year) doing big things after her AFS program.

Here's what she had to say.

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Want to see how an AFS program has changed lives and opened doors to personal, academic and professional excellence? Here are some prominent AFS Returnees now representing strong leadership positions across the world:

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Jan Eliasson

1957 Year Program, Sweden-to-U.S.
Changing the World: UN Secretary General's Special Envoy on the Darfur's Crisis



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Andrea Jung

Year Program, U.S. to Norway
Changing the World: CEO of Avon Products

David Madden

1998 Semester Program, U.S.-to-Austria
Changing the World: 19-time Jeopardy! winner, the 2nd-longest winning contestant on the show, and founder and Executive Director of The National History Bee and Bowl.

More Notable AFS Returnees:

• Zalmay Khalizad - Ambassador and U.S. Representative to the United Nations
• Cesar Gaviria - Chief, Colombian Liberal Party (Partido Liberal Colombiano)
• Hans Dalgren - State Secretary of Foreign Affairs
• Christopher Bo Bramsen - Chief of Protocol, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• Nicholas Burns - Under Secretary for Political Affairs U.S. Dept. of State
• Ricardo Fiegelist Schmidt - Ambassador of Chile to Syria
• Motohide Yoshikawa - Ambassador of Japan to Spain
• Jorge Hernandez Alcerro - Minister of Government and Justice
• Hannu Himanen - Under Secretary of State, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Finland
• James Holmes - President & CEO of the American-Turkish Council
• Jose Angel Lopez Jorrin - Ambassador-at-Large, Coord. of Spanish OSCE Chairmanship
• Rogelio Pfirter - Dir. Gen., Org. of the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons
• Lee Bollinger - President, Columbia University
• Bettina Gregory - Host of "The American Family" on the Goodlife TV Network
• Cady Coleman - Astronaut
• Bill Irwin - Tony Award-winning actor
• Linda Wells - Editor-in-Chief, Allure
• James Woolsey - Vice President for Global Strategic Security at Booz Allen Hamilton
• Margaret Marshall - Chief Justice of Supreme Court, Massachusetts
• Helmut Panke - Director at Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Washington
• Nicole Rash - Miss Indiana
• Craig Wilson - Columnist for USA Today
• James Woolsey - Former head of the CIA
• Eric G. John - U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Thailand