The AFS-USA 75th Anniversary celebration will run throughout the 2022-2023 academic year. That means there is plenty of time to celebrate! We hope you will join us in celebrating 75 years of empowering people to become globally engaged citizens by sharing your story and listening to those shared on the AFS Exchange Podcast. In recognition of this anniversary milestone, we’ve created a special webpage to share stories that showcase the #AFSEffect.
Exchange your perspective
Your Story is Our Story
AFS-USA is celebrating 75 years of empowering people to become globally engaged citizens by delivering meaningful intercultural experiences. Bolstered by these experiences, AFSers help create a more just and peaceful world. There is no doubt that these are turbulent times, but the world our founders envisioned is not only possible…it’s made a reality by people like you. Your gift will make a tremendous difference in transforming families, communities, institutions, and especially the lives of young people in the U.S. and abroad.
NBC Chief Foreign Correspondent and AFS Alumnus Richard Engel Addresses the AFS-USA Family
Information for our Partner Schools
We understand that education has taken on a new look and feel over the past couple of years and some of that may continue in the 2022-2023 academic year. Students, families, the U.S. Department of State, and AFS-USA will continue with their goals of intercultural learning and global citizenship while keeping safety as a top priority.
Our Mission and Impact
100 years of volunteerism. 75 years of exchange.
AFS-USA honors the legacy of its founders—volunteer WWI and WWII American Field Service ambulance drivers—who emerged from the wars with a bold mission: to help prevent future conflict through cultural exchange and understanding.
As a partner in the global AFS network, AFS-USA offers international exchange and education opportunities in over 45 countries and hosts exchange students from 80 countries. True to the spirit of our founders, these intercultural programs are made possible by the dedicated work of AFS Volunteers—more than 3,000 in the U.S. and over 50,000 worldwide.
Our diverse study abroad programs vary in length from a year to a few weeks and cover timely and timeless topics such as sustainability and language learning. What every program has in common is a commitment to fostering intercultural and global competence in our students, host families, schools, and communities. This cultural exchange helps us come together, across typical divides, to make a more peaceful and just world. That’s the #AFSEffect.
The World Needs More Global Citizens
By supporting AFS programs, you foster transformative experiences that last a lifetime. Today’s exchange students are tomorrow’s changemakers: diplomats; thought leaders; influencers in the international business and nonprofit communities. Every new AFS Student is another global citizen in progress—an individual primed to help build a more just and peaceful world. And the impact doesn’t stop with the students. Host families’ lives are transformed by students from across the globe and host communities gain greater cultural diversity. That’s The AFS Effect.
Embrace Diversity
AFS-USA embraces diversity at every level of our organization.
We are committed to creating safe and supportive intercultural learning opportunities for all high school study abroad participants, including persons with disabilities and people of all gender identities, ethnicities, races, religions, and sexual orientations.
The AFS Effect
AFS-USA provides opportunities for intercultural exchange that develop the global competence needed to create a more just and peaceful world. As we’ve consistently demonstrated, AFS nurtures active global citizens who make the world a better place.