How did you learn about AFS and what prompted you to get involved?
I learned about AFS when we got to know an exchange student from Thailand who our friends at church were hosting. Getting to know Dan helped us to decide that we wanted to host an exchange student too. After reading Karoline’s letter, my husband, younger son, and I decided that she was the kind of person that we would love to get to know. Hosting Karoline was a wonderful experience. I got involved in finding host families because I was grateful to the AFS volunteer who helped us to have this experience. I wanted other families to have great experiences too.
What keeps you coming back to volunteer each year?
Building relationships with other people is the best part of my experience as a volunteer. I enjoy getting to know exchange students and learning about other parts of the world. I enjoy talking with them and getting to see the USA through their eyes. I also enjoy the relationships that I am building with other AFS volunteers. My fellow volunteers and host parents understand why I have photos of my favorite AFSers saved on my phone.
What have you learned or how have you been personally affected from your experience with AFS?
On a personal level, I got two know and love three daughters, a nephew, and other AFSers who are now a part of my family. I have friends that are now scattered around the world. They make my life richer. I love how supporting exchange makes the world a smaller and friendlier place. I have learned so much about other areas of the world. I have grown a lot as a person. I learned a lot about my assumptions. AFS has changed the way I look at things and made me more open-minded. I have learned a lot about communication skills and communicating across different cultures.
Please share the best thing or funniest thing that’s happened to you while volunteering with AFS?
It is really hard to pick the best thing when each year is filled with so many beautiful moments with AFSers – having long philosophical discussions, discovering I remembered a lot more of Russian than I thought I did, eating chocolate truffles while watching Les Miserables, trying to figure out how to make a rouladen together, teaching my traditional Christmas chocolate truffle recipe, exploring Chinatown and SOHO while listening to him singing Michael Jackson in falsetto, watching the lights come on in New York City from the top of Rockefeller Center, and seeing the excitement when your AFS daughter sees the Statue of Liberty for the first time.
What do you want to say to people who might be interested in volunteering with AFS?
Volunteering with AFS is a great way to get to know some wonderful kids, to learn about new areas of the world and to see the U.S. in new and interesting ways.
What’s one thing AFS volunteers and staff don’t know about you?
I have been dancing ballroom for six and a half years and my favorite dance is the international samba.
