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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We are currently hosting for our third year. The first year we used different agency but found that it did not meet our needs. For example we traveled 2 hours to go to an orientation only to get there and find that the date changed and no one told us.

So after much research we choose to try AFS - WOW! We love it.

Each year we attend a mandatory Host Family Orientation. I would say that yes we feel that we went once - why do we have to do it each year. Then we think it is a great way for AFS to get to know us better and we can help those who are hosting for the first time and you never know you might hear something that will benefit you and your family.

AFS does require the students to attend a few mandatory meetings. No it is not always convenient, but we feel it is in the best interest of the students. It gives them time to talk with fellow students are experiencing the same things that they are.

There are certain Federal Regulations that agencies are suppose to adhere to, here is a link: http://www.csfes.org/NPR_Story.html

I admired AFS and their vast number of volunteers for helping students have the best experience possible. Is it perfect? Of course not, but it does seem that they have the best interest of the student in mind.

Some agencies get paid for each student they place and bonuses for the amount of time the student stays, etc. That was our last agency.

Our belief is that if they people our volunteers then they are doing it because they are wanting to help others and there is no financial motivation involved.

We have had 6 wonderful students from Scandinavian and European countries and consider all of them to be our children. We will go to visit all of them next year and look forward to being a part of their lives always.

It is my belief that all agencies have their flaws. AFS does have flaws, but I would and do recommend it to anyone who is interested in hosting.

There is a Committee for Safety of Foreign Exchange Students. This is one of the resources I used to choose the agency that was a good fit for my family.
http://www.csfes.org/home.html

Program:
Location:
Posted: December 13, 2019
Overall:
10
Support:
9
Value:
10
By: ajsummers
Age:
54

After having been with us for 6 months, during which our student (a girl from Denmark) hadn't complained about anything, she left for a new host family with only overnight notice. AFS made no attempt to communicate with us in advance, and neither did the student or her parents (whom we vaguely know). I am not blaming the latter on AFS. So what was wrong? Why did she want to move to a new host family? Well, to this day no one in this family really knows. After having done numerous kind things for her to make her feel welcome and part of our family – attending and cheering for her at sports meets around the state and the rest of New England, sponsoring her AT&T program, letting her invite friends over just like our own children do, taking her on several sightseeing/shopping tours of New York City, one of them including a private, catered circumnavigation of Manhattan and Liberty Island, bringing her to our ski home for skiing, buying her friend (another AFS student) a ski pass and inviting her to our ski home, too (by the way, the friend was a very well-behaved and less spoiled young lady), buying birthday and Christmas presents for her, baking her chosen cake for her birthday, making her an advent calendar, making her favorite Danish food (we are of Danish origin, too) and even making additional batches of her favorite food which were frozen for her to eat when she would like, baking her maternal grandmothers favorite cookies for Christmas, so she could feel at home, putting up her paternal grandmother’s picture in our kitchen (the grandmother passed away while she was here) so she could cherish her memory – she suddenly decided, that we weren’t a good fit for her (at least that’s what she told AFS – or that’s what they told us). The truth was one of her teammates from her sports team at school had offered to host her, and that family having this girl her own age, she just found a better deal. It is quite easy to figure that one out and she felt so bad about it that she didn’t dare to tell the truth neither to AFS, to us nor to her own parents. Her dad said he wasn’t sure what had happened, either, when he called us after she had moved out. He claimed to have been told by his daughter to not tell us anything prior to her move, and AFS confirmed they had not said anything because the girl had told them not to. Of course she demanded that, because she knew that if she said something to us, we would have had a conversation about it (we don’t sweep things in under the rug) and it would have been revealed that she simply wanted to move to a new family.
Let me be clear. I couldn’t care less that she went to a new family. Our family didn’t sign up as a host family for our own personal sake. We have already had a very successful experience with an exchange student before (through Rotary, which has an excellent and far cheaper program (for the student) than AFS). We opened our home to your AFS student as a favor to her parents and to her (and to support AFS, I guess, in addition the $20,000 it costs an AFS student to enter the program) but there was nothing in it for us other than costs and inconveniences. Since we are both already from Denmark it wasn’t as is we would learn a new culture. So if she wanted a new family fine by me. But I want to be treated with respect, especially by AFS who take great advantage of their host families given that a year of food, electricity, water, restaurants, etc., easily run over $10,000. The VERY LEAST AFS could have done was to man up and treat our family with respect and INFORM US in advance, once they saw a problem arising. But AFS choose not to, because the truth is that in our case they would have had a problem if we had demanded that she move out right away. Of course, we would never had done that, but had we done so, AFS would have had a problem, because the liaison didn’t have the proper paper work in place to be able to have our exchange student sleep over (background check not in order), and there were no other approved families in our town, so our student would have had to move to a different town and switch schools. Instead, until the background check for the new family was in place, it was simply more convenient for AFS to keep quiet. Alternatively, the AFS liaison in our area lives 10 miles away from the school so she would have had to drive her to school every day and pick her up again. The AFS liaison in our area is a woman who herself was an exchange student 50 years ago, but other than that has no merits qualifying her to handle situations with decency, and as it turns out, several other families in our area have had similar experiences with her and with AFS: Namely, that all you are to them is a bed and breakfast, a wallet that they can use until they no longer deem you necessary, at which time AFS will trash you as they see fit.
It appears that “with the relative high cost of participation in the AFS program, it accepts upper middle income students from abroad” who bring with them spoiled, ungrateful, "prima donna" attitudes of entitlement. If you want to be "used" as a free hotel or "B&B" without any gratitude or appreciation, then by all means sign up as an AFS family. If you perform to the student’s every whim, you may have a great experience, but if not, be forewarned you'll be lucky to get so much as a "thank you" for all your efforts. AFS is a disgrace.

Program:
Location:
Posted: June 11, 2019
Overall:
1
Support:
1
Value:
1
Age:
49

Comments

Almost and identical experience, even down to the student being removed a month before her time was up. Manipulated the situation to her advantage to move in with another exchange student, in a home that was more lax with rules. Believe me...we were not strict, just wanted to know where she was going. Spoiled, ungrateful, prima donna? That and beyond. Our first liaison quit because of her behavior and then we were on our own. The second liaison? They pulled in a mental health specialist because of her manipulation and lies. We spent thousands of dollars on trips, amenities and gifts. Remodeled a room especially for her. Support from AFS?? Hell, no. They make too much money off the fee to step in and God forbid, rock the boat, with a family that is paying a fortune to send their entitled, spoiled brat to the US. Stay away from this program. It's been almost 4 years since our experience and it's one that my family will never forget. It took an emotional toll on all my children as well.

We had a really disappointing experience with this organization in Spain and in Austria, as their managers in both countries were not able to (or did not want to) manage a change of host family request.

After being selected for a year in Austria in April 2018, we did not have any news regarding his host family up to mi August. They made a mistake and told us by email that the family was a permanent one, but it was a temporary one.

Once in the second family, we considered they did not meet the minimum criteria to be a host family for different factors (one of them is that they had selected the family through an ad) and requested a change to AFS Spain.

AFS Spain spent five weeks delaying a concrete reply to us, and that's why we considered that the lack of pre-selected host families is one of the biggest problems of AFS.

They might felt pushed by us and started blaming our son of arriving late to school (he spent almost 90 minutes commuting from the host family house), and he felt pushed to sign a "success program document" by two AFS employees in Austria.

AFS broke the contract unilaterally and our son had to get back to Spain and start school two months an a half later.

In our opinion AFS Spain and Austria are full of management failures that can not be solved by their volunteers.

Not recommendable at all.

Program:
Location:
Posted: November 21, 2018
Overall:
1
Support:
1
Value:
1
By: AFSNever
Age:
35
Program:
Location:
Posted: September 4, 2018
Overall:
1
Support:
1
Value:
1
Age:
40
Program:
Location:
Posted: September 4, 2018
Overall:
1
Support:
1
Value:
1
Age:
40

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