AFS-USA is offering $1000 scholarships to students who apply for available year-long AFS study abroad programs departing in the summer of 2006. Choose from countries in Latin America, Asia and Europe where you'll learn the language, become part of a host family and community, and experience life in another culture.

2006 YEP Scholarship
A YEP (Year Exchange Program) Scholarship will be awarded to a student who submits a pre-application in the month of January for an available year-long AFS study abroad program departing in the summer of 2006. To qualify for this scholarship, do the following before 5:00PM PST on January 31st, 2006:

1. Fill out your pre-application by completing it on-line, or call 1-800-AFS-INFO.
2. Pay the $75 application fee on-line or call the Info Center, listed above.

Candidates will be selected in a random drawing of qualified participants. The drawing will be held in February.
A student who completes the pre-application and the full application by 5:00PM PST on January 31st, 2006 is eligible for yet another $1000 scholarship. Good luck!

AFSers ranked Belgium at the top of the list of countries that provide an enjoyable, enriching, and exciting study abroad experience. Much of that can be attributed to the fact that Belgium is a multicultural, multilingual microcosm of Europe—a contemporary society with an incredibly rich history. You'll walk through medieval town squares and streets in the midst of a thoroughly modern country that has influences in its culture from the French, Dutch, Austrians, and Spanish. You'll also love the cuisine that truly is one of the best in all of Europe. And, of course, there's chocolate!

Belgium consists of three regions: Dutch-speaking Flanders in the north, French-speaking Wallonia in the south, and bilingual Brussels in the center of the country. In the north, Dutch-speaking Flemings live in a flatland crisscrossed by canals. It boasts the medieval cities of Antwerp, Bruges, and Ghent.

School runs from September to June and you'll study a standard curriculum, with possible courses in ethics and religion. Electives like art, music, and drama are taught in the evenings at special academies. If you study abroad with AFS Belgium-Flanders, you'll receive a language CD-ROM with an exercise handbook to help you study the Dutch language, as well as a “schoolmap” with tasks designed to help you integrate easily into school life and the Dutch language.

Dutch is a Germanic language, related to English and German. It’s spoken by more than 20 million people in both Flanders and the Netherlands. Did you know that they even speak Dutch in Surinam, the Antilles, and a variation of it in South Africa?

One AFSer has this to say about her experience in Belgium-Flanders:

"Go with an open heart, go with an open mind, by all means GO! ...I stopped and looked around at everything and said 'Wow! I can't believe I live in this beautiful town in Belgium!' Try to appreciate every part of your experience because you will look back on everything with a different perspective. Oh yeah, and don't forget your camera and a journal."

AFS offers a year program to Belgium Flanders departing in the fall of 2006. Birth date between February 1988 & August 1990.

Catherine Coleman, an AFSer from the U.S. to Norway in 1979, took her love of traveling further than most. Coleman has come-and gone-a long way since her AFS year, joining the Air Force after graduating from MIT with a degree in chemistry and earning a doctorate from the University of Massachusetts in polymer science research in 1991.

Ever eager to explore, Coleman applied to be a NASA astronaut and was selected in 1992. During her first mission to space on the shuttle Columbia, she maintained a number of scientific experiments in NASA's Spacelab, while her second flight in 1999 helped to launch Chandra X-ray Observatory, a telescope that aids astronomers studying the behavior of stars and black holes.

But before she became a pioneering scientist and space explorer, Cady-as she is known to her friends- was a 17 year old AFSer struggling with a new language in a quiet Norwegian town.

Life in the small community was initially tough: Coleman found it difficult to communicate with her Norwegian hosts whom, she had been told, did not speak any English. (She later discovered that they were "one hundred percent" fluent" in English, but had made a pact not to speak the language to help her learn Norwegian.)

"I went to a brand new school, with no tradition of exchange students," she remembered. "I remember that after a few weeks, I asked a biology teacher for textbooks in English," she said. The teacher was baffled as to why a student would request a textbook in a foreign language until Coleman explained that she could not actually read Norwegian fluently. "He said, Really? Well, that's going to make it difficult for you then."

After her year in Norway, Coleman returned to the U.S. with a renewed confidence in her Norwegian language skills and an ability to adapt to new cultures and surroundings.

Dr. Coleman credits her AFS year with helping her to develop her independence and determination, which she relied on during her years as a graduate student and her training as an astronaut. "I think you learn a lot about being tough, and about perseverance, and I found that those were very valuable lessons."

Every year you listen to your friends fret about what to get that "special" person on Valentine's Day. This year try your hand at selling chocolate, balloons, handmade valentines, singing/dancing telegrams, teddy bears, or flowers, etc. in your community or high school. Here's how to make it happen:

1. Take orders 3 weeks before the holiday.
2. Make arrangements with a local shop to supply you with what you need at wholesale prices (or maybe even at cost). Each person ordering from you should fill out an order card with the name, address, and phone number of the recipient. Leave a space on the other side of the card for a personal message from the sender to the recipient.
3. Collect payment ahead of time. Gather the cards several days before Valentine's Day and group them by geographic areas for easy delivery.