Featured Educator

Dr. Barbara Wills, Professional Counselor and AFS Volunteer

Extensive Professional Counseling Background

Dr. Barbara Wills holds a degree in Human Ecology and a Master of Education in Guidance and Counseling from Mississippi College in Clinton, MS. She finished a Stokely Fellowship at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville in 1993 and previously graduated from UTK in 1972 with a specialist in education (Ed.S.). She first taught world geography and human ecology at Forest Hill School in Jackson, MS, and then moved to West Memphis, AR where she became the only counselor for a high school of 850 students. Dr. Wills moved with her family to Senegal for two years, and over the next six years, worked as a consultant in Mali and Burundi. Upon her family’s return to the U.S., she entered the Memphis City School system as a teacher of Human Ecology at Douglas High School. The following year, she became the first Caucasian faculty member at Booker T. Washington High School in their counseling department. Dr. Wills became a middle school counselor chairperson at Roger B. Taney Junior High School, just outside Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland for the following six years. Dr. Wills retired from the public school system in 2007.

Volunteer History with AFS

Dr. Wills was first introduced to AFS in the late ‘60s and served as a temporary host family for two students (from Tanzania and Australia) for a week as they prepared to return to their home countries. “This was the first time I knew about AFS. I knew about exchange organizations as a counselor but not about AFS,” Wills said. When her family moved back to TN from Africa, she met an AFS Volunteer at a new teacher’s tea and helped form the Greater Nashville area team with this volunteer.

Since then, her family has hosted 10 exchange students and she has served on the Miss Tennky Area Volunteer Leadership Team since 1984. “For me, it’s been a passion for a number of years. What’s been most enlightening for me is everything we’ve learned because we’ve been able to host from many countries. The high school has also been able to learn from our exchange students,” she said.

Dr. Wills also set up an AFS club at her school. Students in the club traveled around the U.S. to WA, IL, NJ, NC and NM to visit other schools. “It’s a sad thing more folks don’t take advantage of AFS,” she said. “It’s not for everybody but the majority of folks would benefit.”

Opportunity to Reach Out to Students

“Counselors have the best opportunity of anybody in the school to encourage students to go abroad. Once they know their students, they know who would be a good student to study abroad or family to host,” she said.

Dr. Wills recommends reaching out to local volunteers if a student or family is hesitant to participate with AFS. “You need to network with people who have gone abroad and be face to face. You really need the personal contact to encourage them and follow through,” she said. With a network of more than 5,000 volunteers in the U.S. there is often someone nearby that can meet with the student.

Regarding challenges faced by school’s today, Wills said, “Counselors are not well enough aware of exchange programs so they are not on same page in terms of educating parents and students. We do not have a standard sending policy regarding credits in our High Schools. It’s very important for all school districts to be on same page and encourage participation in study abroad programs.”

AFS as Industry Leader

“From my experience, because I’ve worked with other organizations as a counselor for 43 years off and on, exchange organizations are not created equal,” Wills said. “The reason AFS is the best and the leading organization is because of the support systems in place, support to schools, students and host families.”

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