With some schools around the country having already started, it is time to jump into building and strengthening relationships with our schools for the 22-23 school year!

• School Outreach Calendar: We know many of you are planners, so we have created a calendar to help you have things to talk about with schools, to help you know what’s coming down the pipeline from the AFS School Outreach staff, and encourage you to engage and share the many resources and opportunities that we have for schools. Please read more about the calendar and download it HERE.
• Template for Welcoming Students to your Schools: A best practice for the start of a new school year is to introduce yourself and introduce the exchange students coming to the building! This can be a task for a School Representative or a Liaison. We encourage you to work together to make sure EVERY school gets a welcome message within 2 weeks of the start of the school year. Here’s a template to help you and your team get started!
• Changes to School Info in MyAFS: Many volunteers, especially newer ones, rely more heavily on MyAFS to access information about students, host families, and schools. So, as of last week, some changes have been made to the Schools Tab to help you access and search for information MUCH easier than before. We hope you will take a moment to read through the article with screenshots describing the changes or go to MyAFS and check it out yourself to see how easy it is!
• Welcoming International Students – Webinars for Schools: This year, we’ve seen a lot of turnover in school staff from principals to counselors to teachers. Thus, quite a bit of information about how to navigate student exchange from the school side tends to get lost in those transitions. AFS-USA School Outreach Staff are offering a webinar specific to school staff members at four different dates/times to help school folks have a better understanding of how to enroll students and build a strong foundation for them to be successful throughout the year. For a template that you can share with school leaders/counselors who might benefit from this, please click here. Also, here is the link for school staff members to register to attend.
• School Outreach Training/Updates – Webinars for Volunteers: Much like we want our school staff members to feel prepared and up to date, we want to do the same for any/all volunteers. Starting on September 21st at 8:00pm Eastern / 5:00pm Pacific, we are offering a webinar for volunteers who want to hear from the School Outreach Advisory Group and from AFS-USA Staff about what initiatives are going on, see the latest changes in MyAFS, and learn best practices for engaging with schools. Please share this widely with your team and new volunteers who are looking to find a way to get involved. Register in advance here.
• School Outreach Group on Workplace: If you prefer to read some updates in smaller bites and do so in a platform more like social media, make sure you are connected to AFS on Workplace. (Log in to MyAFS and look in your blue bar below Help & Learning, News and Global Link)! There’s a School Outreach Group that you can choose to join or you may already be a member. This is a great place for folks to learn what types of opportunities exist for engaging with schools!
• Mandatory School Fees: Some states have mandatory registration and book fees and some states don’t! If these fees are part of your reality, please remember that our School Partnerships Staff members are on board to help with these. Please reach out to Amparo Rios if you are in the West, Western Lakes, or Northeast Regions. Please reach out to Sarah Radermacher if you are in the Eastern Lakes, Mountains & Plains, or Southeast Regions.

As always, a huge thank you for all of your time, effort and passion as AFS volunteers!

Jill Woerner, Rebecca Oswalt, Sarah Radermacher, Amparo Rios, & Shaunta Williams