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Class of 2024

Updated

Welcome home class of 2024, and congratulations on completing your AFS experience! We truly believe in the immense value of an AFS exchange program. You have been able to become fully immersed in a local culture and community, really getting to experience the everyday life of others; and this is where the real learning and growing happens! Congratulations to you for being courageous enough to have this experience. We certainly hope that it is just the beginning of a life long passion for relationship and peace building, and intercultural learning.

There are a couple of things that we would like you to remember in the coming months!

Returning home is hard! Don’t be surprised if you experience a lot of reverse culture shock and if you find that you cannot rely solely on your home community as you did before. Reach out to your fellow returnees or your local volunteers to stay engaged with AFS and to continue to debrief and unpack your experience! More on this here.

Remember your commitment to AFS and to give back. When you accepted a spot on an AFS program you made the following commitments:

  • Engage fully. Being a successful AFS participant requires your active participation throughout your experience. You will engage fully and respectfully with your AFS host family, volunteers, and local communities, and make your best efforts to represent your best self and U.S. community, while always treating your host community with respect, dignity, and an open mind.  You will also engage with your class. Members of your class will participate in different programs around the world and each member will develop a unique connection with their AFS host country. The bonds you form with other members of the class of 2024, will open a worldwide network of AFSers to you.
  • Share your experience with others. You will share with us a video or letter and two photos that reflect on your experience abroad at the conclusion of your program.
  • Give back. Volunteering is at the core of our programs. Many AFSers before you have made today’s study abroad programs possible by giving of their time, donations, and ideas. You will give back to our community in some way when you return, such as speaking to your peers, family, and school about studying abroad, participating in an event/volunteering with your local AFS team, or any other idea from you that might carry the AFS mission forward.

AFS-USA wants to hear from you! We want you to be in touch with your local team, to help encourage other young people to have an AFS experience, help prepare the next class of AFSers by participating in a local orientation and share your journey both online and in person orientations! Local volunteers will reach out to you, but if you are looking to get connected to them also then email us at studyabroad@afsusa.org and we will connect you!

Also, remember to tag the official AFS-USA accounts in any posts:

Include at least one of these links: 

afsusa.org/study-abroad

afsusa.org/study-abroad/scholarships

afsusa.org/study-abroad/scholarships-global-citizens

Use these hashtags:

#CreatingGlobalCitizens

#AFSEffect

#StudyAbroadScholarships

Once more, congratulations on the completion of your AFS program! We look forward to seeing what you accomplish next as we welcome you back into the AFS family!

Sincerely,

Caitlin Schneider

Senior Director of Study Abroad at AFS-USA

 

 

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