YES and FLEX Student Stipend
The YES and FLEX scholarships provide all YES and FLEX students with a monthly stipend of $200 per month, beginning with the first month of their arrival. Should you encounter any problems regarding the stipend checks, please contact your AFS Liaison, who will connect you with the appropriate AFS Staff member.
The monthly stipend is a personal allowance that students may use to cover expenses related to socializing with American friends and to pay for personal items such as toiletries, movie tickets/excursions with friends, phone use, gifts, etc. The stipend is not intended for electronics, school or weather specific clothing, school lunches or to be sent home. Host families must provide three meals a day; lunch on school days must be provided and can be either a packed lunch or purchased at the school’s cafeteria.
Interaction with American friends is essential in enabling students to carry out the most important goals of the program while in the United States. Students should be encouraged to spend the stipend in this way and should be discouraged from saving it with the intention of taking it back home. Hosts and local coordinators are encouraged to talk with AFS Support Volunteers should this become a problem.
Host Family Incidentals Allowance
The scholarship also provides a specific amount of funding for each FLEX and YES student, called an Incidentals Allowance; this allowance is intended to help host families cover the additional costs associated with their YES / FLEX student’s participation in school and community life. Allowable expenses include, but are not limited to:
- activity participation fees
- gym or school sports uniforms/equipment
- school event fees
- school and personal supplies
- weather specific clothing/shoes
- yearbooks
The Incidentals Allowance should not be used to pay for vacation costs or electronics.
AFS can only reimburse the host family for expenses accrued using the Incidentals Allowance, not the student. Therefore, we request that a host parent make the purchases on your hosted student’s behalf and submit the enclosed Incidentals Allowance Expense Report with receipts to be reimbursed. We encourage you to submit your expenses as the year progresses; there is no need to save them all for a one time, end of year reimbursement. For further instructions, please see the below Reimbursement Guidelines. If you are not certain if an item will be covered by this allowance, please contact your AFS Liaison or Cluster Coordinator before making the purchase.
IMPORTANT Please note the following:
- please note that this allowance is not renewed should a student move to a new host family. If you receive a student into your home mid-way through the year/semester, please contact your AFS Liaison in order to know what funds remain in your YES/FLEX student’s incidental fund.
Incidentals Allowance Reimbursement Guidelines
To obtain reimbursement for host family incidentals, all completed AFS Expense Reports and receipts should be submitted electronically to Karen Mills at [email protected]. AFS is not requiring receipts to be mailed in at this time