Dear AFS-USA Volunteers,

We are sincerely thankful to all our volunteers who are conducting NSLI-Y and YES Abroad candidate interviews this year, and who have worked on this important project in past years.

We know that last year was an especially challenging time for interviewing these candidates, and the pandemic prevented many volunteers engaging in the interview season as they would have liked.

Completing all candidate interviews and submitting interview forms in a timely manner is crucial to the success of the NSLI-Y and YES Abroad programs, as well as to the AFS relationship with the U.S. Department of State, who make these programs possible for hundreds of participants annually.

This year’s interview season has just kicked off, continuing through February. As you may have read here, NSLI-Y and YES Abroad candidates can be interviewed in-person or virtually, both individually or at group interview events.

If you aren’t already engaged in interviewing candidates, we would like your support! A training video is ready to prepare you, and each interview takes about 40 minutes to complete, plus 30-60 minutes to write up the interview form. Depending on where you live, we have candidates from your region or from elsewhere in the country who are ready to be interviewed. Please reach out to the interview season staff at NSLIYinterviews@afsusa.org to join us and get started.

We would like to again thank those volunteers who support these fantastic NSLI-Y and YES Abroad programs and participants by conducting interviews, and we look forward to welcoming new volunteers to the interview season.

Wishing you all a wonderful Holiday Season and we’ll see you in 2022.

With gratitude,

Tara Hofmann

President & CEO

AFS-USA