AFS-USA, Inc.

AFS is the world’s standard-bearer for international high school exchange, intercultural education and youth leadership development. Its legacy of international service began during World War I with the founding of the American Field Service (AFS), a volunteer ambulance corps created to transport wounded soldiers from the battlefield. At the end of World War II, AFS ambulance drivers sought to continue the tradition of international service. Believing that peacetime created an opportunity to cultivate better understanding and communications across borders, AFS created scholarships that enabled students from war-torn European nations to experience cultural immersion in former “enemy” nations. These first scholarships established a new mission for AFS: to help people develop the knowledge, skills and understanding needed to create a more just and peaceful world. Today, AFS Intercultural Programs, Inc. operates in more than 50 countries as independent, non-profit AFS organizations, each with a volunteer base, a professionally staffed office and a board of directors. Each year, more than 13,000 young people choose to study abroad with AFS in more than 80 countries. In the United States, AFS-USA is responsible for sending 75% of all American students studying abroad to international destinations. AFS stands out from other exchange organizations with one of the largest volunteer bases in the world: over 36,000 volunteers support AFS internationally, including over 6,000 in the United States. Returning students - our alumni - are part of a worldwide network of more than 350,000 people who went abroad with AFS; over 100,000 live in the United States, and the rest live in over 100 countries around the world.AFS MissionAFS-USA works toward a more just and peaceful world by providing international and intercultural learning experiences to individuals, families, schools, and communities through a global volunteer partnership.