Greetings from Portland, Oregon! I touched down here on Monday for a few exciting days of school visits and conversations with volunteers that I hope will open up a dialogue about the successes and challenges from the past year and our strategic roadmap for the year ahead. Tuesday night, one of our Board members Wim Weiwel is hosting a dinner for alumni donors. I’ll update you with more information on my visit to Portland soon.

For now, I want to take a minute to recap and share some highlights with you all from last week’s NAFSA Conference in Washington, D.C.

Many of you know already that several AFS-USA Board Members, Staff, and Volunteers attended the 2019 NAFSA Annual Conference and Expo at the Walter E. Washington Conference Center in Washington D.C. last week. Our preparations and on-site activities were a complex, cross-departmental undertaking, and I’m so proud of the work done to promote AFS-USA’s visibility at such a major event.

If you’re already familiar with NAFSA, you can scroll down to the highlights. But in case you weren’t already aware, the weeklong conference is considered to be the world’s largest gathering of professionals who work in the field of international education. (This year, NAFSA estimated that 11,000+ people attended!) The conference features a massive expo hall where AFS-USA had a booth, five full days packed with sessions and panels focused on news, trends, and important topics in our industry, and keynote speakers that this year included chef/humanitarian Jose Andres, author/historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, and statespersons Madeline Albright and Gen. Colin Powell.

The biggest news is that, this year, AFS-USA co-sponsored the conference’s Secondary Schools Assembly with NAFSA, which took place over May 28-29, 2019. The Secondary Schools Assembly is an important part of NAFSA’s declaration that the international education community includes colleagues involved in secondary education. For us, being a co-leader of the Assembly was an important learning experience, providing insight into the objectives and challenges of private (and a few public) schools, such as faculty-led trips and F-1 students. We were successful in establishing ourselves as a global education partner for all secondary schools, even in cases where the needs of certain schools did not align perfectly with our existing program portfolio. AFS-USA gained significant visibility by participating in both the Assembly and at the conference, as and it was very valuable to contribute and learn from the current dialogue on international education.

Apart from the Assembly, I can think back and pinpoint several personal highlights of the conference. The discussion between Madeleine Albright and Colin Powell helped me contextualize the important work that we do in today’s increasingly divisive world. I found their shared notion, that measured diplomatic approaches offer the best solutions to our most pressing problems, to be particularly refreshing in these challenging times. I also enjoyed a session on “Rethinking and Reclaiming ‘Global’ in Higher Education” from Vishakha N. Desai, who is the Senior Advisor for Global Affairs to the President of Columbia University and serves as the Board Chair of AFS International.

Finally, I loved meeting with so many AFS Returnees who visited our booth and told us that their AFS program was the single most transformational experience of their lives. What more proof do we need that our programs foster global competency and help youth become active world citizens?

Aside from me, the AFS-USA representatives included Joan Siegel (AFS-USA Board Chair), Jim Walker (Board Member), Mary Porterfield (Board Member), Melvin Harmon, Caitlin Schneider, Jeff Burtner, Sam Kahler, Kate Mulvihill, Elena Gonzalez, Martha Friend, and Hilary Weinberger. I would like to thank this group and our many colleagues who also helped them prepare for the event.

For more information on NAFSA, you can send me an email at president@afsusa.org.

And now, with the conference in the rearview mirror, I look forward to a busy summer season that lies ahead. While there is lots to do in the months ahead, I also want to recognize the efforts already made in supporting our many departures, arrivals, and placement processes that define the summer at AFS. Thank you ALL for keeping our important mission alive and well!

Best wishes,

Tara