AFS

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3.5 / 10 after 50 Reviews Based on overall, support & value average ratings
Program website: http://www.afsusa.org

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I am writing without a location or specifying the year when I joined the program because I do not want to get into trouble with my local AFS a second time (as you will see later on). This is going to be quite a long review.

I joined the program as a student and was supposed to have a one-year long exchange, but due to AFS laziness, trickery, and greed I was sent back to my home country in a just a couple months.

I went on exchange in an European country, and was sent to a remote chapter with no other AFS students. This, of course, means the family (not families!) willing to host you are very limited.

My host and I communicated with each other extensively prior to arrival, but as you may know from other reviews, this really doesn't mean anything as neither party knows who they will really be living with.

AFS builds up VERY unrealistic expectations for students (and for host families as well from what I've read in other reviews here). Students DO expect to live with a "normal middle-class family" (meaning you expect a new, fun and yet somewhat challenging lifestyle) because they are NOT told that the host family (if they can even find one for you that is, you may waste two months in your home country because AFS has already taken your money and isn't in a hurry, you are.) may be from the lower class and have financial difficulties just living (i.e. the house may be in disrepair, and I mean broken-kitchen broken-bathroom level disrepair).

As someone from the lower class myself (definitely not a "bella donna" middle class rich kid, I have seen my fair share of money problems and family problems in my own family myself) I have nothing against those who are less financially well-off, but AFS really should not allow families who are struggling to make end's meet to host students. It's a massive burden both on the families and the students as both parties' quality of life will suffer, which is obviously a recipe for good memories for both parties. Both parties would be better off not hosting and not being hosted.

Anyways, as a student, I tried my best to learn the local language as soon as I knew which country I was going to, and that did help with communication after arrival, but no amount of language will help with a host that is obviously not suited to host you, but is hosting you because of god knows what. As others have pointed out, AFS just cares about getting the students in a family, because that's how this greedy dysfunctional organization makes money. Non-profit? Yeah, right.

As you may have guessed, I was not happy from the get go at my host family's house, which is really not their fault, but rather AFS's for doing zero vetting. It was so bad that I even had problems sleeping because the walls were paper thin. I had a breakdown not soon after that, you can say it's my fault, which I would partly agree with, but honestly that blame lies with AFS for even allowing this to happen in the first place.

I tried asking for a change of host to the country's AFS branch, but in return I got told it was all my fault, I'm spoiled, cultural differences, blah blah blah, because it's better for them to do nothing, less work that way.

So I turned to social media for help, and the next day AFS came to me and told me to delete my post in a threatening manner. As an exchange student in a foreign country whose life is basically on the hands of AFS, I had no other choice but to comply. No words about changing host families of course.

Surprisingly, I got what I wanted next month (maybe what I did really caught their attention) and I transferred to my new family. Things were going well initially but then gradually deteriorated due to language barriers (the new host family barely spoke English), and as I can only speak the local language at a beginner's level, communication was a massive problem that AFS did basically nothing to resolve.

Sure, the local chapter correspondent was a nice person, but he/she was far too busy to help with solving such complicated issues. The monthly meetings are, in my opinion, token gestures because if the problems can be solved with such a short meeting, it wasn't even a problem in the first place, and if it can't be solved, then the meeting's not gonna help.

Fast forward a couple weeks, and I received a call from the local AFS saying I apparently had mental issues, and needed to see a doctor (which I did not have, I can assure you. The accusations are self-harm related and I was, and still am too scared of harming my body in the first place to even do such things).

At the doctor's, the host family and the doctor talked about what I supposedly did (from what I could make out with my beginner level proficiency), and then the doctor asked me about how I was feeling, did I do such things, etc... after giving me a physical checkup.

The next week when the report came out, I was horrified to see that the doctor had given me a positive diagnosis and was in urgent need of medical care despite the report clearly stating that I was perfectly healthy physically and that the diagnosis was purely based off of what the host family said I did. The host family said I had lost a lot of weight over the past year despite only having hosted me for less than a quarter of a year and ignored the fact that I had actually gained weight after arriving in that country.

I was then promptly kicked out of the country and sent back to my home country at my own expense. No refunds, no apologies, no chance to proof my innocence, just tens of thousands of wasted dollars.

Don't join this god forsaken program. Stay far, far away. The potential mental damage is not worth it.

Program:
Location:
Posted: August 2, 2023
Overall:
1
Support:
1
Value:
1
Age:

DO NOT PARTICIPATE -- My family just experienced the exact situation described in several reviews below. We hosted a French female student in California, she was a sophomore in our local high school. She was with us for 7 months, during which we thought everything was going well. We took her to the Grand National Rodeo, ski trip in Tahoe (we provided all equipment,ski pass, etc.), box seats at the San Francisco Ballet Nutcracker performance, great seats for the national touring show of Moulin Rouge, Renaissance Faire (loaned her the costume), Halloween party and associated events (loaned her a beautiful flapper outfit), etc. And this past Saturday AFS arrived and moved her to another family: zero advance notification, just poof & she's gone. Frankly, it reminded me of a scene in a movie when Child Protective Services removes kids from a dangerous abusive situation. We do not know anything and were provided zero information. I gather the girl somehow arranged to get another family to host her that has a kid on the same lacrosse team and our exchange student thought she would have more fun in that family. The situation has been stressful, hurtful, and extremely unprofessional. At no time did anyone from AFS comply with their stated process of communicating with both parties (student & host family), try to mediate a mutually agreeable solution, work in a transparent and respectful manner. Instead the student was told to lie to us. Explicitly and verbatim: she was coached to lie to us and hide everything about what was happening re: this transfer that the student unilaterally initiated. I do not know what she said to AFS to cause them to behave this way but the reality that this precise experience is articulated several times below makes me believe this is how the organization operates. We are shocked and upset; especially since our family had previously had extremely positive experiences with foreign exchange for our son and a family in Japan via Rotary. My advice: find another agency and do not get involved with this group in any way!

Program:
Location:
Posted: March 6, 2023
Overall:
2
Support:
1
Value:
6
Age:
58

Full disclosure, I have been a volunteer for AFS on and off for over 30 years. I was an exchange student myself with the program in the 1980's and I had a wonderful experience. I was in contact with my host family until they passed a few years ago. Until this year, I would have highly recommended the program. I can't any longer.

Three years ago, I hosted a wonderful German girl when I lived in Florida. We are still in touch today. I consider her my bonus "daughter." The next year, I was a liaison for another German student and her host family. That also went well.

However, I moved out of Florida to a different state and have had the worst experience with this AFS chapter in my new location. I've never seen so much incompetence and inability to help myself, or the student.

My student's liaison is a wonderful man, but his hands have been tied by others in the chapter. Many volunteers are elderly and have been involved with AFS for 40+ years, which on paper should be good, but their inability to move with the times has hurt the organization.

I was very excited to host again and picked a student from a Scandinavian country. She and I spoke frequently via social media prior to her coming. I set down expectations and rules and she agreed to them. I remodeled her room, bought new furniture all with her approval as I wanted her to feel welcome. There was a snafu with her visa, so she arrived a little late. After arriving, we went on a family vacation, which had been pre-planned. She was ungrateful the entire time, speaking to her boyfriend on social media nearly 24/7 and refusing to engage with anyone. I contacted her liaison and we spoke to her. I figured getting him involved early on would help with the adjustment. It did not. She made the minimum effort to follow his advice, and my house rules.

While she did well at school, made some friends, her attitude in the home was not good. She was put on a behavioral contract a MONTH after her arrival. I had hoped this would help. For like a month it seemed to work and she broke up with the boyfriend, then the non-compliance began again. (Eating in her room, staying out after curfew, bad attitude, not helping with chores, etc.) Typical teenage stuff. Her liaison and I seemingly spoke on a weekly basis. He had hosted a student from that country and it had not gone well either. So, I felt he was on my side and listening to me. However, AFS support staff were not.

Unknown to me, my student had asked to be moved after she manipulated a field trip to another city with other AFSers. Her main complaint was my town was "too small" and everyone in it was a basically a "hick." She wanted to be in a bigger city around other exchange students. (Even though there was a German girl in her high school from another exchange program). She knew she was coming to a small Mid-Western town, but she couldn't adjust. Her constant usage of social media did not help as she felt jealous of other students in bigger cities who got to hang out with each other. She was obsessed with being online, even during eating dinner, she'd be on her phone.

During this trip, she spoke to the president and vice-president of the chapter, but I was never given an update on the situation and how they were dealing with her obvious unhappiness. I felt left out of the loop. This had NEVER happened to me in Florida as that state's president is very transparent.

Then, my student got Covid and refused to comply with standard quarantine stuff in the home, exposing us to catching it. (We didn't, but that's because we were vigilant, not her). Despite multiple talks about why this was important, she did not listen. After much consideration, we decided she was not a good fit for our family and also asked she be moved. Perhaps another family would be better? Normally in those situations, the student is moved to a temporary family while a new family is found.

After she was moved out, we found out she had been lying about us on social media for months. Stating that we never fed her, complaining about us not leaving the house to go anywhere. I guess those trips out-of-state slipped her mind? And generally being an ungrateful "drama queen" about everything.

Normally, I would have chalked this up to a privileged, spoiled child and moved on. However, it was AFS's response that has now put us off ever hosting again. They thought it was no big deal if she said we "starved" her. Or if we got investigated by CPS. Finally, support staff was able to get her to admit she had lied about that and she wrote an apology letter. But this was only after we threatened legal action.

Later, we found out our student had an eating disorder. It was in her medical file but not shown to us until AFTER she arrived. There were also mental health issues but again, we were never told. I had never seen such a lack of vetting by AFS in all my years of volunteering. This was a student who never should have been approved to come in the first place.

My family and I are deeply saddened that we will probably never host again. We love our German girl, I loved my host family and because of my years of volunteering I could have said this was just a bad fit. But now knowing that this student had serious mental health issues and AFS allowed her to come anyway...I cannot recommend them any longer.

Be very careful using this organization. Ask for all pertinent information regarding your student is you decide to host. If I as a LONG-TERM volunteer wasn't told everything, expect you will not be either.

Program:
Location:
Posted: January 2, 2022
Overall:
3
Support:
2
Value:
3
Age:
50

Where do I begin?

As so many have written, I believe that the structure that AFS is currently running on is the core issue of the whole entire program.

Firstly, come two weeks before the students were to arrive we got a frantic email asking for host families for 4 students who didn't have families and also didn't have visa. (That should have been my first clue). We signed up, due to a family member of ours going on exchange when they were in high school, and went through the process.

There was delay after delay with our host student, mostly due to AFS's inadequate planning and back-boning their whole entire operation on volunteers. Three weeks delayed our host student arrived.

We had no support with how to navigate putting our students into classes, we had no support with how book lists and school supplies worked. I ended up having to shell out the over 800.00 to buy everything -- luckily we got that paid back. I also had to question and demand that AFS pay for school fees as they started to 'pick and choose' which required fees they were going to pay.

Beyond that, the year was a complete joke. They had absolutely no travel policy that was clear, transparent and in my opinion safe for the students. They want to know everywhere that the students are going to be staying 4 weeks in advance, but have no online system for booking travel and no outline chain of command. In our intake packet, which again needs to be greatly overhauled, I had absolutely, no idea to contact for what. In fact, when I spoke to someone at the corporate office, they said that the volunteers were the ones to approve travel first. So, parents are paying upwards of 20k aud to send their kids overseas and volunteers are approving of and managing the travel of minors under AFS care. Does not seem safe. I voiced my concerns, and honestly nothing changed.

This was on top of students then having to pay an additional 2250.00 for a 10 day Aussie outback trip which was planned during the last 4 weeks of term before exams. Now most students don't need marks for their schooling, but some do. They almost couldn't run it this year, because they couldn't get the numbers.

The two camps that were provided by AFS were so lack-luster. They actually did nothing, have no cultural excursions (beyond going to the zoo), did not incorporate anything Indigenous in their camps and left our student in such a filthy camp in November that none of the students showered for two days. I again fed back places that AFS could spend money on to take students on Australian and/or cultural exchanges. Again, these camps are run by volunteers and not overseen by corporate for the most part.

At the end of the program, I asked about 'returning home' support that they give to students, as nothing had been sent to me and/or my student and/or her natural family. I actually got something from corporate -- but I wouldn't have had I not asked. I was told that they covered stuff at the November camp (2 months before my student left) but it wasn't true. In the email, the volunteer leader admitted that although they had a PowerPoint created they didn't actually follow it on the weekend. The information they did follow had nothing to do with 're-entry'.

As a provider of educational study abroad programs, I would NOT recommend them at all. Luckily we did not have any issues with our student -- but I know so many students who had ongoing issues with their host families. There was no ongoing support for the students except random phone calls from AFS volunteers that the students didn't really know. I also got 1 phone call from someone who I had never met before. It's so horribly ran.

Beyond all of this, it cost us a fortune. We knew that this was the case, but had we not done the things that we did with our student she would have had a long and boring 10 months as AFS pretty much does nothing with the students excpet two camps in 10 months.

My biggest concern for AFS is the legal loopholes and gaps that they are opening themselves up to. It won't be long until something tragic happens and/or they can't find host families anymore.

Program:
Location:
Posted: February 3, 2020
Overall:
1
Support:
1
Value:
1
Age:
42

I very much like AFS program in Iowa, US. It was a great experience. The staff were very professional and the orientation was great. I got to meet students from different parts of the world. My experience with hostfamily was great in general. There were problems, but just consider how different it was to live in a country you’ve never been before and stay with a family you’ve never met. It was hard, but both my hostfamily and my local AFS liaison tried to overcome the problems. I especially loved my high school. All the teachers there were great and they loved to talk to an exchange students, so were the students. I still have connections with a lot of my American friends, and other AFS friends around the world. I DID see some students having problems with hostfamily and something else, and one of them was my friend. She ended up going back home early…I was really sad. But it’s a special case though….we had maybe 50 students(I’m not sure the exact number as I did not meet all of the students in my area), and she was the only one. All the students who stayed were happy I promise. We used to complain a lot when we got together during some orientations, cultural shock, host family issues…etc. but now it’s been a year since I went back to my home country. And I look back to the experience, it really changed my life in a more positive way. I could have been more mature to solve some problems I had that year, and have a greater year. But there is NO WAY to blame AFS for my personal issues. I would recommend AFS to anyone who wants to go to the United States, and Germany (my friend had a great year, too) But for other locations, I have no right to comment.

Program:
Location:
Posted: December 16, 2019
Overall:
10
Support:
10
Value:
10
By: donna123
Age:

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