A number of partners are adopting a new student application for NH20 as part of an initiative by AFS International to streamline the student recruitment and application process, improve the customer experience and allow for easier recruitment of participants for our flagship program (Semester/Year Program) by sending partners.

Partners participating in the new student portal and application for this year include: Australia, Austria, Belgium (Flanders), Belgium (French), Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Finland, France, Greece, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Serbia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey

Of note, AFS-USA Study Abroad has also adopted this new student application portal (Salesforce) for its NH20 sending students.

In the coming years, all partners in the AFS network will be adopting this new portal/platform for their participant recruitment and application.

How will this impact AFS-USA Hosting for NH20:

1. Applications from the above-listed partners will be formatted differently, but will still be viewed through Global Link
2. To facilitate streamlining of the application process for participants, you will see the following changes in the application:
   • Host Family Letter: Because the art of letter writing has faded with the advent of email, and to ensure applicants have sufficient guidance to provide relevant information about themselves, the host family letter has been replaced by a series of open-ended questions that will be answered by applicants and will appear in the application.  You may find you get to know the students better!
   • Parent Occupation: This personal information not critical for program management has been removed; Additionally, this has been removed to avoid stigmatization of/discrimination against students due to their parents’ occupations
   • Need for Access to Religious Services: This information is expected to be added to the standard application at a later date; For now, the information will be gathered by Hosting Operations staff (who review the application when transferred from sending partners) and noted in the student’s placement detail comment and “About Students” tags when applicable
   • Parent/Guardian Custody Rights: In cases where this is applicable, information will be gathered by Hosting Operations reviewing staff and noted in the student’s placement detail comment (or directly included in the student’s application)
   • Sibling Names and Sibling Dates of Birth: Due to new data protection laws, this information cannot be requested since it is not critical for program management; However, number and age of siblings will still be collected; Applicable “About Students” tags will be applied for students (e.g., Only Child, Has Siblings, Oldest Child, Youngest Child)
   • Family/Friends Living Abroad: This is expected to be added to the standard application at a later date; For now, the information will be gathered by Hosting Operations staff, who review the application when transferred from sending partners, and noted in the student’s placement detail comment when applicable
   • Native Language: Native Language will be listed in the “Languages” section of the application and we are working with AFS International to identify a workable solution to denote the student’s primary “native” language
   • Passport photo: This photo will now be requested by the sending partner upon acceptance by AFS-USA so will not appear immediately in the student’s application, but will be available once completed by the participant
   • Traveled on J-1/F-1 Visa Previously: This is expected to be added to the standard application at a later date; For now, the information will be gathered by Hosting Operations staff (who review the application when transferred from sending partners) and noted in the student’s placement detail comment when applicable
   • Medical Form: Separated into two: self-reported and reported by doctor; Some questions removed that are no longer deemed necessary by INT Risk Management Team and our insurer; Some questions added to render additional health forms redundant; New, improved design to make it easier to fill out by doctor
   • Parental Authorization Form: Will now be included in the participation agreement, so will not appear in the application; We are working with AFS International to ensure that information needed by host schools such as the “permission for school sponsored activities” section is included in the application
   • Emergency Contact: Will now be requested by the sending partner upon acceptance by AFS-USA so will not appear immediately in the student’s application, but will be added later

Benefits for Hosting and Study Abroad Partners:

1. Salesforce will improve the way sending partners interact with leads and applicants and give us data to act on in order to get as many young people as possible to participate in our programs.
2. The interface for participants and their natural families is user-friendly and the communication channel between AFS and potential participants is streamlined
3. Additional information can be easily requested by sending partners in cases where additional clarification may be needed by the hosting partner
4. Eventually, hosting partners will be better able to understand their sending partners’ funnel of potential applicants, which will be useful for planning purposes
5. Salesforce is a robust, widely-used CRM platform that has the capability to expand and/or be customized to meet AFS’ needs moving forward

As with any introduction of a new process, we expect there will be some tweaks required. If you have any items you believe require attention, please don’t hesitate to send your suggestion to USAHostingOperations@afsusa.org.

We appreciate your patience and support during the transitional period as we work out any bugs.

AFS-USA Hosting Team