AFS

Not Verified What's this?
3.5 / 10 after 50 Reviews Based on overall, support & value average ratings
Program website: http://www.afsusa.org

Submit a review

Well, I think AFS is a good organization. We have received good support as a US host family. The orientations and follow up group meetings were a bit disorganized, but still helpful.

AFS totally needs to revamp their standards on hand held devices. Either the kids agree that they will not bring one or that they will give it up immediately when the arrive to the host family. Then it can be given only when the host family sees appropriate. These kids are coming with these pacifiers and failing to integrate with the host families. Taking no interest in our children is not acceptable. Taking them or trying to restrict their use is like dealing with a crack baby or heroine withdrawal. Seriously. This has been a real and serious issue for us.

We picked a kid from a city in a country we are intimately familiar with. The city was not as large as some from his home country. What we were hoping for was that we would be giving a kid a real opportunity. A kid who maybe didn't have the opportunities that some have from the 10 million large city. We had lived there and were very familiar with his culture and speak the language decently. We have similar interests that we had hoped would be a nice bridge and connection. No way. I am pretty sure this child is not interested in us and is only here for the hotel that we provide. Yes, we have assigned chores. Yes there are limits. All are an issue. My view is that I will probably never open my home again to an over privileged kid with only a sense of entitlement. He has very little curiosity, asks no question, gives little to no feed back. He avoids even simple things if they are going to involve research or work. (Like filling out a library card). He seems to not appreciate anything we have done for or with him. There is no motivation to be self motivating even when encouraged to. There is always some issue, something we are not allowing that will be held against us.

I think exchange programs are no largely relevant in this day and age. Prove me wrong kids. Prove me wrong. I have read and talked to so many people about this issue. If you can get everything you want and only what you want on you i-phone, why would you want to be challenged to explore anything else? Too bad, but really this kid is just wasting his parents money. But of course that is to be expected. He is a child of privilege and it is being proved even after 5 months in. I had hoped for an exchange. An exchange of ideas, conversations, interests and smiles. Too bad. I wish AFS could reach out to people who really would appreciate this kind of experience. Getting less well to do families is not an options, because the costs involved.

I am not only open and love other cultures, but this has pretty much been a waste of time. Sad to say, but true.

Program:
Location:
Posted: January 21, 2015
Overall:
5
Support:
8
Value:
3
Age:
46

My daughter was supposed to study abroad in Northern Italy for her senior year and had to return early because when she told the coordinator of her region that she felt like she wasn't welcomed by her host family and that her host mom was not making her feel like part of the family, the coordinator gave her a contract to sign and said to her "you don't want to go home, do you?"hmmm. My daughter tried to make things work and followed the guidlines of the program and wenr to her volunteers when she had problems,when she couldn't take it anymore living with this host family(even wanting to go to a hotel) AFS did nothing to help my daughter but just made her more miserable.
Anything your son or daughter might say to some of the volunteers will be used against them if the want to swich host families. My daughter was doing well in school, in spite of it all ,and made wonderful friends (her only support system) and had to return home early because they took a deaf ear to her and she could not take being mistreated by her host family any longer.

Program:
Location:
Posted: January 19, 2015
Overall:
1
Support:
1
Value:
1
Age:
50

Comments

My son went abroad with AFS, and he was not given any recourse at all. I would have expected them to give him a second chance with another host family, and in fact, he had several offers at his school, but AFS declined. This program is directly responsible for causing harm to my son. The volunteers were strange, and treated him very badly. AFS USA treated me very badly. We actually paid to put him at risk for lifelong anxieties and depression. I am thoroughly disgusted with AFS. Another student did the volunteer program, and she was not given adequate support. She had no choice but to return early. Likewise, she paid for this "experience". Out of 9 caucasians that went to Malaysia that year, 4 were went home within 3 months. Out of 22 students of Asian descent that went to Malaysia, none were sent back during this time frame.

While I recommend AFS, I do so with reservations, as I would for any study abroad program. Did the year I spent in Germany in 1981-82 change my life? Absolutely, and I would never trade the experience despite all the problems I experienced, some of which were of my own making.

First: If you go for an entire year, do not expect to be treated the way foreign exchange students are treated here in the US. At my high school in California, foreign exchange students were put on the homecoming court, encouraged to try out for sports teams, allowed to go through graduation, and generally were given as many opportunities to experience being a teenager in America. When we took in a foreign exchange student for the summer when I was young, we took them on vacation to the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, San Francisco, and the California coast. We took them to Disneyland and Hollywood, San Diego and (only because they wanted to see it) Death Valley. In Germany in 1981, the school could care less that I was there and many of the students saw me as a stereotypical American - as if I represented Ronald Reagan himself (Germans saw Reagan's rhetoric as dangerous). Even my German parents were anti-American to a large extent. No matter how hard I tried to immerse myself into German culture and the language, I was rarely accepted as a young 17 year-old that just wanted to learn about a new culture and improve my German. Of course, American and British troops ran war exercises nearby running tanks through the streets, and American nuclear missiles dotted the countryside, so looking back you can understand what made many Germans upset. As a young America, I was clueless to all of this. The breaking point came one night when my German parents found out I was a Christian Scientist and then proceeded to trash my religion and my parents for raising me to believe in it (they were Lutheran, but didn't go to church, not unlike many Germans). To their credit, the local AFS people found another family that were much more caring and understanding as their own daughter was in the US with AFS in Ohio, getting all the experiences that expected when I went to Germany. While this was an awful experience, I learned to expect that people often see the worst in you, often based only on your nationality. I know this applies to Americans as well, I had just never experienced it as a child as my parents had raised me to be accepting and open to everyone. Still, I must say that at that time Germans were mistrustful of Americans and foreigners in general. They were much more willing to send their students to the US (over 250) than they were to take in Americans and other foreigners (only 80). This may be very different today.

Second: Rememeber, it's a study abroad program. You live with a family and go to school for a year in a completely different school and social setting. I say this because a few students that had to go home during the year failed to see this point. They expected the kind of freedom that most American teenagers get in the US, including choosing your own classes or being allowed to go out at night with friends; this was not how things worked in Germany. If you want to party in Europe, go on a vacation.
Like many students, I had graduated from high school so taking a full slate of classes was a shock because my German was not very good when I first arrived. I asked the school if I could take an intermediate German class instead of Latin, but the school and my parents said no. I found out later it was because the program was mainly for Turkish immigrants, and my German parents openly hated the Turks (my second

Third: It is expensive, so be aware of what you are spending your money on. AFS isn't perfect, but some of the negative comments suggest that parents or their children expect everyone to bend to their idea of what the experience should be. AFS cannot guarantee the perfect experience. In hindsight I probably would have had a much better experience going abroad in college when I had a few more years of life-experience and the ability to travel on my own or with friends on holidays. I was not mature enough to understand this at the time. And if you sign a contract, read the fine print!

In short, I would only recommend you to do a foreign exchange program if you are mature for your age (I was not), almost fluent in the language (I only had 2 years of German, not enough), and have not led a sheltered life. If not, wait until college.

Program:
Location:
Posted: October 30, 2014
Overall:
7
Support:
5
Value:
6
By: dpeirce
Age:
50

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: September 1, 2014
Overall:
10
Support:
10
Value:
10
Age:
42

We have hosted three students from three different countries, via AFS. Our first student was amazing and our local volunteers in Colorado were also great. I had no issues and no worries. Our second student was also amazing, but our AFS local volunteers in Washington were not very helpful when it came time to transport the AFS students to required AFS activities. This is when I realized that AFS doesn't have any paid staff members to support the AFS students or the AFS host families. Our third AFS student was also great, but she arrived late in September, during a time when AFS pleads with you to host. (we had not planned on hosting this year) This is when I realized that AFS takes families' money from all of the world even through they DON'T have host families arranged. One email we received in September stated that they still had 80 students to place in our region. This makes me very sad for the traveling students and the students' families. AFS told us that if they don't find host families, the AFS students don't get to come to the U.S. and they don't get their deposit money back. This makes me very uncomfortable. Knowing how much money is paid by the sending family, I am wondering where all of that money goes. (I have not yet met an AFS person who is paid).

The one positive piece of AFS is that all three students we hosted were wonderful and we still keep in contact with them today.

We have decided to only host through YFU now, because 1) the YFU staff in my town are full time, local people and 2) there are no long-distance required events I am expected to transport to and 3) we receive a monthly stipend (it's small, but it's nice to receive some kind of thank-you reimbursement).

Program:
Location:
Posted: August 18, 2014
Overall:
3
Support:
2
Value:
2
Age:
41

Comments

The way we began hosting is that someone at work said her child worked for an agency and was looking to get a student out of a home. The student "P" was placed in a home on Monday and this was Thursday. The man of the house kept tell P that she was suppose to be blond. They would take the phone when they left. Anyway we applied at about 4 on Thursday and she came to live with us on Friday at 6 pm. Unfortunately she only stayed a week. Whatever happened in the home prior to us was too much for her and her family and the decision was made for her to return home. So the next year we decided that we would go through the entire process and choose a student. We did. We never had a host family orientation or meeting of any kind. There were no support meetings for the students. We drove 2 hours to attend a picnic - when we got there the date had been changed and no one bothered to tell us. The girls that we had were wonderful - but they asked us where there money went because they paid a lot of money. They asked if we were paid - no we were not paid. We decided to host again, but that we would research companies and go from there. We choose AFS two years ago and are so thankful to have found them. No we do not work for AFS, but yes we volunteer because we are host parents and we are not paid - making us volunteers. The reason we decided on AFS was because most of the people were volunteers and not paid. We feel that this take the monetary incentive out of the picture and that our hope is that this makes them have the best interest of the student in mind. We in no way think that AFS is perfect, it is not for everyone. That is why there are several organizations. The reason I replied is that I wanted to share a different view point on paid staff. We did look at YFU before we choose AFS, but it was to our disgust to find out they had shared information with others. I had students and people calling asking when we were getting an exchange student - we had not agreed to host with them and had asked them to keep it confidential. Do I think YFU is a bad organization? No, I think that person did the wrong thing, but since they would have been the one that we dealt with I knew it was not a good fit for us. I hope you have a wonderful hosting experience for years to come!

Pages