Rick Bendix, Volunteer
Returnee, AFS Summer - Asunción, Paraguay, 2004
Rick, an AFS Volunteer extraordinaire, is also an employee at Alaska Airlines. In November 2011, he was highlighted in the Alaska Airlines Magazine as one of the "People Behind the Spirit." Here's what they had to say about him:
Volunteer Spirit
Foreign ExchangeEach summer, American Field Service sends more than 450 exchange students through Seattle -- american students leaving for far-off lands and foreign students arriving to attend schools across the Pacific Northwest. They all pass through Seattle in a period of about three days, and Rick Bendix is one fo the volunteer coordinators who has spent the previous year making sure all the details are taken care of for the students, as well s for their host families.
Rick is perfect of the job. As a Company Programs & Events Specialist for Alaska Airlines, he organizes everything from large-scale employee meetings to marketing events that introduce new service to destinations such as Hawai'i.
Rick also has been an AFS student, spending a summer in Paraguay while in high school. AS a student at Seattle University, he studied abroad for a year, in Granada, Spain. Now he helps coordinate and train 120 AFS volunteers in the Seattle area.
"I always enjoy leaning about local culture when I travel, and I like working with AFS because studying overseas is such a great opportunity for these kids, and for their host families."
Read the story in the magazine (Page 15).
Ruth Quiles, Volunteer
Returnee, AFS Semester - Cairns, Australia, 2004
"Volunteering with AFS keeps me connected to my own AFS experience. Every time I meet a new exchange student who has just arrived in the US, I regain a little piece of the feeling of excitement and possibility that defines the beginning of an AFS adventure. Re-experiencing that feeling reminds me that, though I may never be an AFS student again, I helped to pave the way for future exchange students, and it is up to me to do my best to make sure that their experience is as rewarding and life-changing as mine was."
Carol Meissner, Volunteer
Recipient of 2010 AFS Mission Award
Carol has been involved with AFS since the early 90s. Her family has hosted and sent AFS students, she has been a Chapter President and Hosting Committee Chair for the last 9 years, as well as a liaison. She has worked on development and served as a member of the Hosting Advisory Group. Her nominators describe her as having no personal agenda: “Her mission is the AFS mission. She promotes peace, she wants the students to grow and have a great experience, and she cares about the happiness of the host families. She is caring and compassionate, along with having great leadership and organizational skills that she shares just by working along side others”. She “gives above and beyond, not because she has to, but because she believes in so much of what AFS represents, locally, nationally and internationally."
