How did you learn about AFS and what prompted you to get involved?
AFS was my first job out of college. I held off on beginning my teaching career to work with exchange students. I lived at CW Post on Long Island as part of the orientation site team. At the end of the summer, I was hired by the marketing department. What a great first job experience! When I accepted a job teaching English at the American School Foundation of Monterrey, Mexico, I stepped off the plane and almost immediately received a call to volunteer for AFS. The local regional coordinator had stepped down for personal reasons, and there I was – a volunteer.
What keeps you coming back to volunteer each year?
I love the metaphor of a bridge when I think of the mission of AFS. I help build bridges to intercultural understanding. As a teacher, I work with so many deserving students, so it is an extension of my role as an educator to teach global education!
What’s a typical volunteer ‘shift’ like for you?
I wear a number of “hats” for AFS and enjoy them all. I advise the Fox Lane High School AFS Club- an incredibly active club which meets every other week. Our high school has hosted the E-Z Pass orientations for a number of years now. In addition, I am a local liaison in Newtown, CT. I especially enjoy interviewing potential host families and students interested in participating as an exchange student. I have participated in various roles at the final orientation and end-of stay. Every week is different depending on the season and the need!
What have you learned or how have you been personally affected from your experience with AFS?
When my children were in elementary school, we acted as an emergency host family. One of those short-term hosting weekends wound up lasting five months. Hosting Natasha from Malaysia was the start of my family’s AFS experience. I raised my girls to see themselves as part of a global community. That has always mattered a great deal to me and hopefully has had a lasting effect on all of my family members.
Please share the best thing or funniest thing that’s happened to you while volunteering with AFS.
In the past few years, three Fox Lane High School students have participated in AFS exchanges on full scholarships. Their lives were significantly changed by their year abroad, and I am so proud of the young adults they have become. I can’t think of anything that makes me happier than helping such special young people reach their dreams.
What do you want to say to people who might be interested in volunteering with AFS?
We live in a global society. AFS provides so many volunteer opportunities to be active participants in making our world a little smaller. The connections made though international exchange benefit all of us from the student world traveler to the host family, school, and community.
What’s one thing AFS volunteers and staff don’t know about you?
Most AFS volunteers and staff don’t know I am going to night school to study Spanish. I am trying to fulfill my dream of becoming bilingual. I have participated for the past ten years in an annual community service trip to build homes in Nicaragua with my students. I am always frustrated by my inability to have an in-depth conversation with the families we work beside and the masons who guide us in our work. I tell my high school students we are never too old to learn! That includes me as well!