Study Abroad

Forum-Nexus was so fun and the best way to go abroad!! Because of covid spiking early in the year, FN decided to stay in 1 country for the summer, but we traveled to multiple cities and it was amazing! I love that the program is (usually) multi-country and multi-city, because you can see so much of the world and experience different cultures. This summer we went to Rome, Florence, Milan, Lake Garda, and Venice. It was so fun and each city was so different. We also were able to go on weekend trips if we wanted and I went to Croatia which was so cool. The professors are so nice and accommodating. Yes, you have school work but it is manageable and they understand that traveling the world and new experiences outside of the classroom are important too. You have the freedom to do what you want in your free-time. The professional visits were also really cool! They are to interesting places like the Gucci Museum in Florence and a gelato factory in Bergamo. The hotels were also super nice and the breakfast was so good too. I traveled with some high school friends and FN accommodated us so we were in a room for 3 every time and we all had a bed, not a cot or anything. Thank you Forum-Nexus for the best summer ever!

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.

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.

First off, I 110% recommend attending a study abroad program in Italy, especially in Turin. It is the ideal immersive mix between academics and travel, has many renowned universities, a strong culture and is practically located in the center of Europe. HOWEVER, I STRONGLY caution against attending any USAC study abroad program, and I will outline why below.

Firstly, the program is rather costly, and costs more than a typical semester at any regular university, with very little opportunity for study or financial aid, especially if you go on a program outside your main university.

Secondly, you never know which staff members you will receive based on a certain location, but typically, the highest-ranking of the staff and of the entire consortium tend to be dry, unhelpful, and needlessly and excessively punitive. Your entire academic performance and transcripts for the semesters attended are essentially in the hands of a very strict, indignant, and ultimately unreasonable group of people. For example, if you happen to get sick (as I did, after coming down with a terrible illness) and miss more than one day in any given class, you can expect to get -2% OFF YOUR ENTIRE GRADE! That's right - 2% off the ENTIRE grade, not simply for "attendance" or any other percentage of the grade - this is even including a doctor's note. That's right, you could practically get hit by a bus, not be able to walk, and if you were in the hospital abroad and didn't happen to waddle your way over to class on crutches for an elective course, you can kiss any chance of getting a good grade in that class goodbye.

This example might seem excessive, however, they firmly ensure that there are no exceptions. Beyond that, I personally was denied any recommendation of a grade appeal, actually, the staff told me that there is nothing I can do, and the decision was final. This was ultimately a lie - there was a grade appeal process, and the window for it can close rather quickly, depending on what semester you are attending. USAC wants to put your academic career at risk and are the opposite of advocates for students, simply so they won't have to deal with your complaints. These transcripts go through American universities, so if you were hypothetically a diligent student otherwise, you can expect USAC to absolutely ruin/tarnish your transcript with their draconian policies. Do you really want to pay over $8000 to be treated like this by a place that isn't even a real university?

My main contention is that this type of punishment is practically unheard of in real, reputed universities. I have attended a few universities by way of transfer, and some community colleges. Typically, if ever there is a punishment for attendance, typically it only factors into a portion of the grade (let's say a weight of 10-20% at most). Beyond that, real, reputable universities accept medical forms and other official documents for excused absences. USAC is a consortium, meaning they are their own separate subgroup with their own strange academic system, however, they override any administrative decision made in the universities they contract, so they are the ones who determine the outcome of your grades.

As a caveat, the vast majority of professors I had in this program were amazing and knowledgable. Most of them were highly cultured and educated locals, and I am excluding them from this review. Some staff members are also local, and many are increasingly kind and helpful. This is primarily to warn you about how you will be treated institutionally by USAC.

I went on this program primarily because it was the only one available in this location that was relevant to my line of study. Hopefully, more competition will be created to allow foreigners to travel and study in main hubs in Italy like Turin and Milan, but for now, I would really recommend a program that at least has accountability with a university. That way, if you run into any issues abroad, you are not at the mercy of a consortium with increasingly uncommon academic procedures and a lack of common sense.

I encourage you to deeply research the policies of any study abroad program before attending, and if you really want to be taken care of and represented in a foreign country, choose another program.

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

Plainly speaking, I am very dissatisfied with my don Quijote experience. My girlfriend Bonnie and I looked forward to this trip for months only to be frustrated with our very poor experience. Don Quijote did not meet our expectations! We did not have the “times of our lives.” Our don Quijote academic advisor did not provide clear guidance on how to select a language program that best fit each of our needs. They did not provide enough information about their homestay selection to allow us to make an informed decision. And they knowingly sold us a ridiculously priced airport pick up option that is nothing short of criminal.

Below are the details of each issue.

Issues with the Language Courses Purchased

· I will concede that I misunderstood some of the details regarding the course offerings we purchased. Thankfully, the local don Quijote school director had the decency to inform me of the issue on the first day.

· Specifically, I did not understand that Super Intensive 30 meant 30 hours of instruction. I thought I had purchase 20 hours of ‘advanced’ language instruction. The local director caught this error right away and explained the math. Because there were only four school days during the week of our stay (due to the November 1st holiday), both Bonnie and I would have had to average 7 ½ hours of instruction per day for four days to complete 30 hours of instruction. Not only is this not practical for any language learner, but the school simply was not able to accommodate such a schedule. This error should have been caught by Don Quijote as they are experts in their course of instruction and language learning best practice. Obviously, had we understood the course options, we would not have chosen Super Intensive 30 course. Clearly, the don Quijote academic advisor should have caught this error right away and recommended an alternative course, as the local director did.

· To make things worse, I purchased 5 hours of additional private instruction, which would have totaled my daily hours of instruction to 8 ½. How is it possible that my don Quijote academic advisor did not realize this wasn’t a problem? Again, the local director realized the issue right away while my don Quijote academic advisor failed me miserably. I attended a one-hour follow-on class after the 4-hour group class on the first day. However, it was not a one-on-one, customized class just for me. It was simply an extension of the group class format, attended by three students and with no real structure or agenda. Because the local don Quijote school was unable to fulfill the private class as described in your brochure, I elected not to attend the remaining classes as it did not meet the course description objectives nor my expectations.

· Bottom line, my academic advisor gave me no advice!

Issues with the Home Stay Arrangement

· The most egregious issue is regarding our homestay arrangement. The address provided by don Quijote was incorrect. It is the address of the host’s sister. To be clear, it is not the address of the homestay hosts and not the location where Bonnie and I lodged and expected to be. We stayed at a different location, not the “central residential neighborhood” as described in the homestay description and it was located twice as far from the school as communicated. Don Quijote and our hosts put us in a very awkward, worrisome and quite frankly, un-safe situation. A very unsafe situation! Bonnie and I simply did not know where we were, our address, how to travel to the school in the morning, etc., nor could we tell anyone where we were. This is a totally unethical and dangerous “bait and switch” practice! This is a horrible way to treat a customer, an unethical business practice if not illegal, and one that should never be condoned!

· To make things worse, our hosts did not provide Bonnie and I the correct address until the morning of our third day in Oaxaca, even though we asked them multiple times! During the first two days we were not able to return to the property on our own accord because we did not know the address of our homestay. We had no choice but to rely on our hosts to pick us up after school. It ruined our Monday evening because instead of eating dinner with our fellow students, we waited for our hosts in a heavy rain for over an hour to be picked up. The school had closed its doors, so we waited outside under cover of a nearby building in the rain. We were soaking wet and did not eat dinner that night nor breakfast the next morning!

· During our wait in the rain it became apparent our hosts were not familiar with the exact location of the school. How is that possible? We saw our host drive by the front (and only) entrance to the school three or four times without looking or stopping before finally picking us up.

· It was only on our third day that we had the correct address needed to travel around the city on foot and taxi.

Issues with the Homestay itself

· Again, the location of the actual house was twice as far as what was communicated by don Quijote. Instead of an easy 15-minute walk, it was a difficult and dangerous 30-minute walk: difficult because the property is located on an extremely steep hill and dangerous because the traffic on the street leading from the hosts’ house is very heavy with narrow and obstructed sidewalks.

· There are no nice stores, restaurants or bars near the homestay. While our fellow students spoke of 5-minute walks to pleasant cafes and restaurants, Bonnie and I walked at least 30 minutes before arriving at one.

· We did not have WIFI at our homestay until late afternoon Wednesday, halfway through our entire week stay.

· The price of the room, given the location and amenities is super overpriced, as compared to the lodgings of our fellow students.

o The bed, linen, pillows were all very uncomfortable and of poor quality.

o There was no couch, not a single comfortable chair to sit. Only picnic-style benches and stackable metal chairs with no cushions.

o There was no refrigerator for cold drinks or perishable food.

o The host gave us a coffee maker on our second day but only instant coffee.

o There was a gas stove, but it did not work. There was no microwave, no way to cook or reheat food.

o On the first night, the host had to send her husband out to buy us each a 1-liter bottle of water because there were bugs inside the 5-gallon water container they intended for us to use.

· The noise in the neighborhood was incessant. Dogs barked and fireworks boomed all night long, every single night. This is not an exaggeration.

· Don Quijote gave us insufficient details regarding the correct address, quality, condition and amenities of the property for Bonnie and me to make an informed decision. Had we received this information, as should be any traveler’s expectation, we would have never accepted this arrangement.

Issue with the Pick-up Service

· We expected a professional pickup service. Your communication said, “One of our drivers will be waiting for you with a don Quijote sign bearing your name to be easily spotted.” We were quite surprised to see the host family at the airport with a paper sign waiting to pick us up. We realize now that we should not have had to pay extra for the pickup service.

· The extra charge for the pickup service was exorbitant, $70 US dollars. We subsequently learned that a taxi ride from the airport to the hosts’ home is only $6 dollars US. For that price we expected a professional pickup service that we never received. Instead we were picked up by the hosts in an uncomfortable car with no seat belts, no air conditioner, no anything. This is a total rip-off, a cheat, and a positively shameful business practice for which we demand reparation!

To be clear, I have documented and can show evidence of all that I’ve said above. If don Quijote cares even a little about the safety of their clients, or at least their own reputation, they will meet my refund demands as summarized at the beginning of this communication.

This program was awesome and I had an amazing time. The educational opportunities were great. I loved the school and the location (Academia BsAs). The directors were amazing. They were always there if you needed anything, and they were so knowledgeable about the history of every place we visited on excursions which was super helpful whenever I had questions. They were always able to answer them. The excursions themselves were always well planned and amazing experiences, and we still had time to travel outside of the program by ourselves if we wanted to. The home-stay was awesome, and I absolutely loved the woman I stayed with. She was wonderful! Overall, it was an amazing experience that I would highly recommend to anyone who wishes to learn a new language.

Going to Oaxaca, Mexico was an incredible experience, and Sol Abroad helped make that happen. The director of our program, Ena Aguilar, was informed and very active in making sure that everyone in our group was happy and taken care of. Near to the end of the trip, I got a bit sick, and even though it was never anything too serious, Ena made sure to check in with me whenever she could about how I was doing.

The program itinerary was very thorough and gave us an opportunity to see and do things that normal tourists would not be able to do. One day, we took a cooking class with an esteemed Oaxacan chef. Another, we took a guided tour through Santo Domingo, a temple in Oaxaca. We even took a trip to a small beach town called Huatulco for a weekend and relaxed.

All in all, the trip was incredible, mostly thanks to Sol Abroad and it's services. I couldn't recommend them enough!

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.

I went to Rio de Janeiro for two weeks with IVHQ. It was the best two weeks of my life so far. It was easy for me to adjust to the culture because I had spent two years studying Brazil, learning Portuguese and I also have some friends that live in Niterói and Florianópolis. They helped me figure out what do, where to go and how assimilate.

I felt right at home from the minute I got there. The other volunteers were amazing and they matched my excitement and enthusiasm. I will really miss them. The hostel was great and if I ever go back, I'll stay there again.

Brazil is not perfect at all and I saw this when I went to Gamboa, a favela, to teach group fitness classes. It was sad at times, but helping those people work out or simply smile and forget about their problems was an indescribable feeling. The staff at the fitness center was friendly and people really enjoyed having me there.

IVHQ was the only study abroad program I could afford and I would definitely travel with them again. If you are wondering about whether or not you should travel. Just go for it. It's worth it.